


Body Language

by Inko



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Characters, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Futuristic Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, High School, Humor, Kagehina centric, M/M, Magic, Magical Dueling, Mates, Sports, University, alpha!kageyama, bad language, evolved humans, language-based magic, light discrimination, magic-based sports, minor OCs - Freeform, mutual underage kinda (see A/N), no beta we die like men, omega!hinata, time skips between past and present
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2019-10-13 01:53:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 79,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inko/pseuds/Inko
Summary: Tadashi loved Shouyou and Tobio. He really did. They were his good friends, and good friends were what helped him get up each morning and face this stressful, scary world of university exams and freakishly skilled dueling opponents.Except he had a lot of money riding on The Bet because he’d been a young and foolish high schooler, and he’d put his hard-earned cash on the ‘four year’ option and it was coming up on four years. So if Shouyou and Tobio wouldpleasejust realize they were in love with each other already, that would be great.But who was he kidding.They’d been like this forfour years.Tadashi was already kissing his sweet, sweet money goodbye.(Or: the story in which Hinata and Kageyama swear that they’re rivals, form a magical dueling partnership, and find outthat’s not how instincts work.)





	1. The Present

**Author's Note:**

> In this post-apocalyptic world, humans and society have changed a lot. Age of consent is 15, and due to certain biological and cultural circumstances, it is highly normalized that teenagers at this age enter into mutual, consensual (and in most cases, contractual) sexual relationships with their peers. While the main characters wait until they’re both 16 to get it on on-screen, or ‘do the Devil’s tango’ as the kids say these days, if this bothers you, then please proceed no further.
> 
> Also, the a/b/o isn’t a main focus, merely an aspect of the world. People don’t lose their minds with lust or turn into instinct-driven animals, for the most part, so sorry if that’s your thing. Stuff will be explained in due time.
> 
> Also, this fic (actually, let's be real, _this ship_ ) is the only way I know how to cope with the stress of grad school. Unfortunately, that also means updates may be slow. Depends on how much soul I have left after I get home each day.
> 
> Also I'm very sleep deprived and this is very unedited. Sorry. On that note, if you see any errors, please tell me! :)

***

_It was two hundred years ago when they figured it out._

_In a blow felt keenly by practitioners of the hard sciences, it wasn’t the chemists who made the discovery. It wasn’t the biologists, or even the geologists or ecologists or mathematicians, and it certainly wasn’t the physicists like the whole world thought it would be. No, it was the linguists who figured it out._

_Who figured out that magic was not an unexplainable supernatural phenomenon._

_It was a language._

_And each person had their own._

 

***

_August 24 th, 532 P.C. – the Present_

 

“Hey, Suga!” Yui called, sporting her signature smile and bounding over to him along the practice field sidelines. “Sorry I’m late! Who’d we get?”

Koushi watched as yellow-tinted energy sparked beneath Yui’s airy steps, and her petite frame practically buzzed as she tried to contain the physical emittance of her excitement. Unsuccessfully, with the way her pixie-cut looked like she’d jammed a fork straight in an outlet. Normally Koushi would’ve cracked a grin at the sight.

Except he really didn’t feel like smiling just then, as he hugged his old tablet tightly to his chest.

In fact, he was about ready to cry.

Five applicants. Five beautiful, bright-eyed freshmen had dared to list Karasuno as their first choice this year. It was the miracle of all miracles, far more than their ailing team could have ever prayed for. Koushi should have been elated. Overjoyed. Ready to prostrate himself in gratitude before the universe and the spirit of magic and whatever god or gods may exist.

…Should have been.        

“I…” he began, turning back to the downtrodden, grassy field. And then he clicked his mouth shut, because the scene in front of him could certainly explain his misery far better.

It wasn’t bad a first glance. The morning had dawned cloudless and bright, coloring the practice field so green that it looked like someone was messing with a camera filter. And he _did_ kind of feel like taking a picture. About half of their teammates were standing around the sidelines, kicking back sports drinks under the brilliant sun and snapping towels at each other between laughter. The others were flushed and panting near center-field, dripping with determination and sweat as they soared through drills under Daichi’s approving watch. It was one of those hopeful scenes, peaceful and invigorating all at the same time. The kind that made Koushi feel like homework and stress didn’t exist anymore and there was nothing between him and an endless field of magic.

His fingers twitched towards his cell – maybe he’d sneak a few pictures anyway. (It had been at least three days since he’d added any to his secret team folder, and that was kind of a travesty in itself.)

Until he looked back over at the group doing tryouts and the urge shattered quicker than frozen glass.

“Eh?”

Yui, apparently, had followed his gaze.

“ _Eh_?”

She grabbed at Koushi’s shoulders, her eyes never leaving the field.

“K-K-Kageyama? _Kageyama Tobio_? Suga, are- are my eyes deceiving me?” She began shaking him back and forth and he let it happen, his strength gone along with his will to live.  “Am I dreaming? Oh my gods, oh my gods. I didn’t realize he’d come to Hanadai. All the gossip websites said he chose Shintoudai! I mean, um. N-Not that I stalk him on social media or anything, heh.”

Koushi did his best to stiffen his neck, wondering if that would stop the whiplash it felt like he was going to get.

“But Suga, _Suga_ , this is crazy! Kageyama Tobio is trying out for Karasuno! We’re gonna have Kageyama Tobio on our team! A Class 1 Rank A magic-user! _Class 1_ , Suga! We’re saved! We’ll be champions!”

Finally he was able to grunt out a pained sound, covering his eyes like he could block out this cruel, cruel world.

“Eh? S-Suga? Are you ok? Crap, did I shake too hard?”

Peeking through his fingers, he could see Yui glancing at him, concerned. He didn’t answer, only gestured back towards the field. She’d understand soon enough.

Because-

“Oi, _dumbass_ , stop fucking with your postpositions!”

Kageyama Tobio.

Magical prodigy. King of the Field. Powerful, wealthy, wanted by every team for his name if nothing else.

“My language has _particles_ , idiot, particles! Not postpositions!”

Hinata Shouyou.

Bundle of raw and scarily large potential, mostly untapped. A no-name, but Karasuno wasn’t so elitist to care.

“You absolute fucking dumbass, your particles _are_ postpositions! You are the shittiest excuse for a duelist I’ve ever seen!”

“ _Hah_? At- At least I can actually communicate with other people!”

“Without your mouth, maybe, but sure as hell not with your magic because you keep _fucking with your postpositions_. If your morphosyntax is shit then how do you expect to get creative with pragmatics? _”_

“Well why don’t you just do it for me then, huh? You, you controlling, stupid… jerk!”

“Fine, you idiotic dumbass, I will!”

“Fine!”

_“Fine!_ ”

“Oi, I said ‘fine’ first, Stupidyama, you can’t just say it too! That was _my_ line!”

“No you didn’t, you-”

Koushi stopped listening for his own sanity’s sake, glancing over to Daichi and- ooh, yeah, not good. His Playmate was doing the dark aura thing again as he stared at the bickering duo, with shadows eclipsing his (extra handsome) face. It looked more suited to the deepest pits of hell than a pleasant, sunny noon on a semi-trampled practice field. Someone might actually die that day.

Probably Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shouyou, if he’d venture a guess.

Koushi huffed out a long, pained breath.

Gods, separately they could have been such assets to the team. But magical dueling was a team sport, one based on communication; if you didn’t get along with your team, if you couldn’t trust them to be vulnerable and honest and talk with you, Koushi thought, then all the power and potential in the world was useless. And those two… those two were clearly _never_ going to get along.

Koushi could see that beautiful, beautiful number of five dwindle down to four. One of the applicants would have to be cut.

“O-Oh,” stuttered out Yui, her wide brown eyes frozen in front of her in realization. She was frowning now, too, in a scarily accurate impression of an upset Daichi.

(They weren’t known as the Twin Terrors for nothing, and Koushi caught himself shifting slightly away.)

She scratched absently at the back of her neck, absorbing the scene like it was one of her V-screen dramas. “Wow. Well, we clearly can’t keep both of them.”

“…Clearly,” Koushi agreed, mouth flattened and tone dry.

Except it was more complicated than cutting one of the pair, really. Because he’d been watching the five hopeful freshmen show off their skills all morning, and the problem certainly transcended a mere conflict of personalities.

“Well,” Yui continued after a minute of stunned silence, wringing her hands, “it’s gonna suck to cut the little guy since we definitely need the numbers, but what else can we do? Kageyama’s skills are legendary. He’s incredible.”

And yeah, that was the understatement of the century.

“Gods, I almost wish he wasn’t,” Koushi sighed, watching Chikara run a hybrid three-v-three castle simulation.

(Chikara. May whatever god or gods existed bless Ennoshita Chikara. He’d been the least reactive to Kageyama’s fame when he showed up at the field. Most of the other Karasuno members had either started posturing and cutting “threatening” poses – _Tanaka_ – or skirted around the teen and stared in awe. Chikara had walked up to Kageyama mid-yawn and said a tired good morning.)

Chikara had learned very quickly to separate the applicants for drills, sticking Kageyama with two veteran members while Hinata temporarily sat out, and for that Koushi could kiss him.

Yui made a curious hum. “You wish he wasn’t talented? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What’s more important to you, talent or teamwork?” Koushi asked instead of answering, glancing over at his friend. “Watch him with Sasaki and Aoki.”

He gestured to the area where the trio was trying to defend their castle, a rickety wooden fort, from one veteran and two of the other hopefuls.

“Make it stronger!” Kageyama shouted as the purple shine of Sasaki’s magic sputtered out a good ten feet in front of their enemy. Koushi could almost see her throat bob in a gulp before she steeled herself, ready to try again. Aoki was tied up building little walls of energy as shields to block out the other team, but their last opponent – Yamaguchi, if Koushi remembered – was rushing towards the castle from the side. They’d lose if he breached the inner castle lines.

Sasaki squared her shoulders and raised her hand towards Yamaguchi, more of a mental focus than anything magical. But it meant she was lining up for a narrow energy shot, clean and precise and effective when done right. It wouldn’t do much alone when she was this worn down, but with Kageyama there to enhance her power…

He mirrored her stance perfectly, and Koushi at least had to admire the dedication to his craft. Even when he knew Sasaki’s words were spoken, Kageyama wasn’t going to miss anything that might possibly affect her magical emittance – he was the perfect supporter. Except he wasn’t, really, when Sasaki spoke and he repeated the words and instead of that clean, precise shot, a massive wall of blue-tinted energy flew towards all four of the other players. Including their own team member.

Koushi could only stare, because that wasn’t _support_. That was… that was hijacking. Kageyama had bulldozed over her intended attack, making it his own. Potent and forceful and nothing like what Sasaki was going for. And not for the first time that day, Koushi thought he might just know why Kageyama was really called a king.

Aoki yelped and dropped her defensive wall in a panic, saved only by the fact that the other players scrambled back too.

With a frustrated scowl, Kageyama spun towards Sasaki, who was still watching the carnage with a gaping sort of shock.

“Faster,” he grit out, glaring down everything that met his eyes.

Sasaki flinched. “I’m t-trying,” she offered dejectedly, staring at the ground and inching closer to Aoki like a shield. They stood together, a defensive wall of tight shoulders, huddled bodies, and mouths tense with dread. A line in the sand.

_We won’t follow you like this_ , the distance between them said.

“Gods, they look… scared of him,” Yui whispered slowly.

Chikara apparently agreed from across the field. “Stop, stop. Everyone take a water break. Take five.”

He dropped his whistle and jogged towards the players, stopping when he was close enough that he had to look up to meet Kageyama’s eyes.

“Kageyama, look, for the last time, you can’t just do that. Even if you know it’s not the most effective play, she was going for a precision attack. She needed a guide, not a global power boost. You need to communicate with your team!”

The dark-haired teenager paused, looking lost.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. I’m talking to her magic just fine.”

Chikara just stared for a few painful moments before replying, “…Great, but you also need to ask _her_ what her plans are. Like, with your mouth. You- you need to talk… you get that, right?” he stumbled at the end, like he couldn’t believe he actually had to say that to an experienced eighteen-year-old duelist.

Koushi really couldn’t either, to be honest.

“She needs to emit faster,” Kageyama continued earnestly. “At this rate she’ll only be a burden to the team-”

“Ok,” Chikara quickly cut him off, nearly masking the way Yui’s breath hitched, “how about we switch drills now?”

Kageyama furrowed his brows. “But we weren’t fini-”

“Hinata!” the future captain called, physically dragging a confused Kageyama off the field. “Come take this guy’s place. We’re gonna run this again.”

“Alright!” the redhead cheered with a fist in the air, practically skipping over to the huddled girls. He leaned a bit too far into their space, smile so wide it threatened to expand past his face. “I’m Hinata Shouyou, and my language is gestural! What’re your names? What’re your languages like?”

Like a fresh breeze in a stale room, his effect on the pair was immediate.

“O-Oh, um, I’m, S-Sasaki. Sasaki Chizuru,” she stuttered, her frame relaxing as she spoke. “My language i-is verbal and very close to Pre-C English.”

It took Koushi a moment to realize Hinata wasn’t actually emitting any magic – he just naturally glowed with excitement.

“ _Uwaah_! So cool! Can I see? Mine’s not similar at all, so I had to work _forever_ to figure out my words! Ahh, I’m so jealous! Your lexicon’s probably _awesome_ by now!”

Sasaki blushed and murmured her soft denials towards the ground, but her posture was more open than it’d been all morning, her smile soft and genuine. In a mere ten seconds she’d been won over.

“Aoki Manami, and my language is mental,” the other girl greeted with a proud smile, wrapping an arm around Sasaki. Hinata looked like he’d been electrocuted with how suddenly he jolted, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet and widening his eyes to baby-deer proportions. Koushi might’ve even seen a sparkle or five in there.

“Ehh? No _way_ , mental languages are the coolest! You can trick the enemy team that way, and it looks so flashy on the field, even if you’re not using your body to move! You can just stare down your opponent and _whoosh_ , your magic just goes! Like _zoom_! You guys must make amazing partners! I-I look forward to working with you both!” he burst out so enthusiastically that Koushi could actually feel the exclamation marks.

Hinata was… _electric_.

(Yui absently rubbed at the hair standing up on her arms, and Koushi wondered if she was feeling the palpable buzz of Hinata’s presence like he was.)

The two beta girls wasted no time melting right onto the grass, cooing over their new partner and ruffling his fiery hair that was just as wild as he was. And when they gathered into a strategy huddle, it looked more like a group of old friends meeting up for the first time in a while: all big grins and laughter and animated gestures without a hint of disagreement. A perfect, cohesive team.

Koushi’s tears would’ve been from happiness, then, except he’d been watching long enough to know what was coming next.

Hinata dropped into a stance that looked like he was ready for some hardcore martial arts, feet spread wide and planted firmly against the wooden floor of the fort: his evocation word.

(He was lucky, _so lucky_ , Koushi thought, that his language was so compatible with movement and combat. Most gestural duelists were easy pickings in competition, unable to defend themselves mid-speech act when they needed their body motions to form the correct words.

But Hinata’s words fit together like they _wanted_ a fight. Like they were asking for an opponent worthy enough to march up to him. He’d truly never seen anything like it.)

Immediately the air around Hinata shimmered just the slightest bit orange, and hair started to float too, just a little too high for it to be blamed on the wind. It made the teen look even wilder than normal, more untamable. A force of nature – powerful but unrefined. Sasaki and Aoki moved next to him, Sasaki flashing blue as she muttered her evocation and Aoki producing a little gust of air. They shared wide smiles and excited nods as they stood in silence, ready to fight. Ready to win.

Chikara blew his whistle blew to start the match.

And everything went to shit.

Hinata began to move like he was either fighting or dancing with the air, all striking limbs and rolling muscles in a level of speed and fluidity that was absurdly mesmerizing. Powerful bursts of energy flew in all directions, the field seeming to come alive with activity as the ground shook and magic lived and died anywhere and everywhere all at once. It was chaos in the best kind of way, the fun kind that lit up the players’ faces as their opponents couldn’t quite find their footing under the magical barrage. Until they did, and it stopped being so effective. At least two of the other players started a steady advance, executing some pretty clean defensive moves of their own.

The tides had turned. Within minutes, Hinata’s team was losing.

And yet… they were laughing and smiling? Koushi wanted so very badly to join in and find out just how much fun a person needed to have to lose with a heartfelt smile. And the laughter, too. At one point it looked like Aoki muttered something particularly funny, because all three of them doubled over in what could only be described as guffaws. They clutched at each other and gasped for breath as the enemy players continued their advance.

“Over that way,” Hinata finally cried out. He was the only one who was still fully focused on the game, and Aoki was barely able to construct her shield again before the freshman with glasses breached the line. She was barely able to do anything anymore, actually, rolling around on the shaky planks that made up the castle’s second floor.

“Do the t-thing again,” Sasaki giggled. Hinata beamed and tried to break up the ground in front of the castle like he was making a dry moat, only to end up knocking over a couple trees in the opposite direction instead. He looked at them both with wide eyes before the two girls collapsed in laughter again. It didn’t faze him, though, and he grinned as he took up his evocation stance once more.

 “We haven’t lost yet!” he shouted to his teammates beside him, who jumped to their feet and wiped the sweat from their brows, reinvigorated for the moment.

And ah, thought Koushi. That made sense. He was losing with a smile because he didn’t actually believe that he _would_ lose. He would give it his all until the end. That kind of drive, that kind of determination – it was Hinata’s biggest asset besides his speed and stamina.

Koushi wished he could possess even sliver of what Hinata was showing just then. That incredible willingness to keep going at full strength, even when all the signs were pointing to their loss. And they were definitely going to lose. Hinata had insane amounts of energy but poor control, and the other two were getting far too tired to compensate for his lack of precision. They’d been drilling since practice had started.

But Hinata didn’t stop flinging around his lightning-quick attacks, didn’t stop communicating with the girls until their castle had been razed to the ground and they were ushered to the sidelines for cleanup.

“Good game,” the redhead declared to his teammates, reaching out with both his hands. The girls shook each one, ruffling his hair again while they were at it. Hinata laughed, only stopping when his lip started to wobble and he stared at the field longingly, as if he’d never get to touch it again. As if stepping off when the drill ended broke his heart.

“Aww, don’t sweat it, little man!” Aoki cried out. “You were amazing out there! So fast! All you need is better control!”

Sasaki nodded vigorously, dragging him towards their equipment pile for some water. “Yeah! We’ll get them next time for sure!”

A hand smacking Koushi’s arm drew his attention back to his captain, and he turned to her, waiting.

“It’s like night and day, the difference between those two,” Yui murmured dazedly. “I mean, they kind of sucked, but even _I_ want to be on the field with the little guy – Hinata, was it? He’s like a spark or something.”

It was an apt comparison when Koushi thought about it. Spark, sun, beacon, whatever, Hinata was lighting his teammates up. Teammates he’d known for fifteen minutes tops, teammates who were hard-working and determined, sure, but also two of the shyest girls Koushi had ever met. And this tiny redhead was drawing them out of their shell, pushing them to shine on their own.

Hinata was changing the dynamic of the team without even touching his magic.

And sabotaging it _with_ his magic, all at the same time.

Koushi wondered if it would be appropriate to ask for a moment of silence in these dark times.

The two juniors stood in mournful quiet, watching the run-through of a couple more drills until Chikara called for another water break and turned his back on the group. His first mistake.

Like magnets, Kageyama and Hinata gravitated towards each other, the hostility in their frames so identical it was a little bit funny. They were just a bit out of earshot, but Koushi didn’t have to be a genius to know it wasn’t a pleasant chat.

“-never gonna be essential to winning like that,” Kageyama was saying as he stalked closer to the sidelines, and Hinata reared back like he was struck.

“Not ess- hah? Oi, you wanna fight?” he cried, arms up in some sort of fake fighting stance.

Koushi thought for sure the other teen wouldn’t be dumb enough to take him up on his offer, _in front of their potential captain_ , but color him wrong because Kageyama immediately spun to the shorter boy and gripped his hair in a painful-looking hold.

“Ow, ow, hey, I’m gonna go bald! Let go, Stupidyama!”

“I’ll let go when you improve, dumbass.”

“I can’t improve if you’re yanking on my hair, idiot! Ow, I said _let go_!”

He arced his hands through the air purposefully, jerking them forward with the weight of his small frame and smoothly rolling his back at the same time.

Shimmering into existence before Koushi could even blink, a physical wall of reddened energy shot towards the taller teen, and he jumped back just to be able to block. Hinata didn’t waste his chance to scurry out of reach. He squinted back at Kageyama, rubbing at his head and eyeing the alpha with an aggressive pout.

“I’m sorry for thinking that maybe you were being dramatic before, Suga. With the whole silent broody thing,” Yui said, distracting Koushi from whatever new issue the two freshmen had decided to argue about. “Ugh, of course you don’t brood. You’re not a brooder. I should’ve known.”

The look of genuine remorse on her face almost tricked him into a grin.

Almost.

She continued, arms hugging her chest. “So we have to choose, then. Genius-level skills and a horrible attitude or untapped potential and the ability to communicate well with anyone. Did I get that right?”

Yeah. Yeah, she definitely had that right. But there was one more glaring problem, laughing in the face of their dwindling team numbers, and Koushi felt foolish for walking into tryouts hopeful.

He glanced down to his tablet, understanding a little bit more by the minute why Daichi was always pinching the bridge of his nose.

“There’s a bit more to it than that.” He studied the screen, clicking through the application files he had pulled up. “Five applied, including them. All of them from the same high school, and four of them from the same team. One of the ones we saw last spring.”

“Makes sense. I thought a couple of the others looked familiar,” Yui nodded towards two of the applicants sitting over by Tanaka and Noya. “We saw their three-v-three, right?”

“Yeah. Kageyama, Yamaguchi, and Yachi were in that one,” he replied, pointing them out after each name. “They must’ve agreed to follow each other to the same university team, but it doesn’t actually look like those two like Kageyama very much, and- oh. Oh no, oh crap, he’s on the move. Oh gods, Dai! Daichi! I need you for a sec!” he cried a little more than desperately towards the alpha, who’d started moving towards the pair that was _still_ fighting.

And crap, now Daichi’s (thick, muscular, _delicious_ ) frame was starting to do the shadow thing too, and he kind of looked like a pissed-off angel of death as he stalked towards the freshman who hadn’t yet realized how screwed they were.

“ _Daichi_!” Koushi called, a last-ditch attempt before he moved to physically intervene, but thankfully the alpha paused. His (wonderfully square, and _sharp,_ gods, so sharp) jaw was clenched so hard Koushi was afraid it might pop right out, so he offered a placating smile and beckoned the other over. “Daichi, I need you over here.”

Koushi made sure to widen his eyes just a bit and put the barest hint of need into his voice, because if laying it on thick was going to save lives today, he didn’t mind at all. Daichi’s own eyes seemed to clear back to their normal chocolate brown, and he turned towards Koushi instead, more ‘walking’ than ‘stalking’ this time.

Crisis averted. For now.

(There was a string of “Dumbass” and “Idiot” repeated rapid-fire in the background. Koushi quickly reached for his alpha’s hand – an anchor as much as a distraction.)

“What it is?” Daichi asked, thumbing over Koushi’s cheek gently before moving to stand beside him, arm secure around his back.

“Yui and I wanted to talk logistics,” he replied truthfully. They’d need to discuss this… _issue_ at some point, after all. With Kiyoko too, but that would come later.

Daichi’s face seemed to darken again, the corners of his lips twisting down. It was more disappointed frown than glare of death, though, so that was a step up, Koushi supposed. Everyone was still alive. Somehow.

“We’ll have to cut one of them. Probably the redhead,” the other captain said. “It doesn’t look like they’ll ever be able to communicate.”

“In anything but insults,” Yui amended cheekily.

Koushi pointed to her, giving his alpha a wry smile. “Yep, we figured.”

“That’s not all there is though, right?” Daichi asked. “Or else you wouldn’t look so…” he trailed off, gesturing helplessly at his Playmate.

“Broody. It’s weird, right? Suga schemes, sometimes, but he doesn’t brood,” Yui supplied for him. The alpha nodded twice.

Koushi ignored both of them and grabbed his own chin as an afterthought.

“It looks like Hinata’s going to be the biggest problem. Not his skills… or lack thereof, I guess, but his ties to the other freshmen. I spoke very briefly with Yachi and, uh-” Koushi glanced down at his tablet, “-Tsukishima earlier. They’re Playmates. Which wouldn’t normally be a problem, obviously, except Yachi said she and Yamaguchi, who’s also Tsukishima’s best friend, were both good friends with Hinata in high school. With the way they’ve gravitated towards him all morning, I’m guessing they wanted to start dueling together with Hinata in college. And Tsukishima probably followed his best friend and Playmate.”

Realization dawned in Yui’s eyes. “If we cut Hinata, then-”

“-we might effectively cut all four,” Daichi finished for her, frustration apparent in his frame. “So you think we let Kageyama go instead?”

Koushi could only shrug at him helplessly. It was the question he’d been wrestling with for the past couple hours, ever since tryouts started and he realized this gift from the gods may be more like a curse. And he still didn’t have a good answer.

“Well… I’m not sure that’s in our best interest,” Yui offered slowly, the words looking sour on her tongue like she was sucking a lemon. Clearly the young alpha had not made a fan.

“I mean- look at that control,” she continued. “We’re not gonna find that again anytime soon, especially not in someone so young. He’ll only improve over the next four years. I mean, can you imagine it? Having a Class 1 Rank _S_ duelist on our team? Shiratorizawa’s the only other team at Hanadai that does.”

The trio looked back over to the field, just in time to see the blue-eyed alpha unleash a wave of darkened magic towards Hinata. Even as the shorter teen stood defiantly with crossed arms and a cocked hip, he let the magic wrap around him. Koushi had to give it to the redheaded spitfire – he was a tiny thing, toned but thin and a solid head shorter than the alpha, yet he was still giving as good as he got, fiercely refusing to back down.

And then Koushi’s attention was torn away from the shorter boy unbidden as Kageyama’s magic suddenly _yanked_ , ripping Hinata’s own power away from him and releasing it into the air.

He tuned out whatever scathing remark Kageyama had next because. Because.

Holy.

Holy shit.

Holy shit – Hinata hadn’t even been _wielding_ and it had… it had emitted for Kageyama.

That was. What even? But actually how? Were they childhood best friends who knew each other’s languages intimately? But no, there was no way they had that kind of connection with the way they’d been acting all morning. And even if they did, even if Kageyama knew the other boy’s language by heart, to be able to force someone else’s magic to emit for him- Koushi had never seen anything like it.

Kageyama must really be that good.

“ _That’s_ the best pragmatic context for that word, shitty Hinata-”

“Hot damn!” Noya shouted, stopping the argument in its tracks. He whistled loudly from across the field and jogged over towards the new hopefuls for the first time that morning. Except he didn’t stop at just getting close, running up to the alpha instead and gripping his shoulders tight.

“Man, that was insane! When did you learn how to do that? Does it work with everyone? Can you do it to me if I give you some of my words? Can you try it out right now?”

Kageyama faltered at the onslaught, but he quickly recovered and straightened up. “I can pull magic from you using your words in my own language, but I have to enhance it just like normal after that. You’d need to grab it and use it for something.”

“No _way_. Show me! Actually, wait, does the move have a name?”

“Hah? A name?”

“Yeah, like I have this awesome move called Rolling Thun-”

Koushi wasn’t sure he even had the mental capacity to process words anymore, let alone what was happening in front of him. He could only recognize a thrill through his body, a tremor in his heart at Kageyama’s sheer power, sheer command over the magic. He had felt it earlier, too, so different from Hinata’s spark. But it was unmistakable: the young alpha’s magical prowess also had a presence of its own. Heavy and commanding, it weighed down on Koushi’s shoulders.

The world started to buzz away until nothing was left but him, the field, and the two alphas standing near the center. But the other two were in their own world now, one shooting off questions that the other stoically fielded, talking terms and theory that Koushi wasn’t even sure he _understood_ , and the grass between them began to stretch. The longer he stared, the farther away Noya and Kageyama became. So distant that the vice-captain knew he’d never really be able to catch up to them.

“Oi, Suga! Those things aren’t cheap!” Yui cried out, snapping the world back into place, and he looked down as soon as he heard the tablet in his hands creaking under pressure. Quickly easing up, he offered his friend a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, sorry. My bad.”

Yui clicked her tongue and whacked him across the back so hard that he stumbled forward, clutching his computer tight so that it wouldn’t go crashing to the ground.

“O-Oi-” Daichi spluttered, reaching to steady his Playmate. “Yui-”

“I’m not sure what you were thinking just then,” the girl declared, “but lighten up! There’s nothing going on over there that you can’t learn how to do too.”

Koushi’s face felt as blank as his head. “I’m… I’m not so sure that’s accurate.”

“Hmph. You can’t make up for lack of experience with talent, Suga.” Yui spun to grab his face in her hands a little less than gently, forcing his empty gaze to her burning one. She was fire but she was warmth and she was _safe_ , and Koushi relaxed even as wariness shot up his spine in little shivers. “Even if we let him in, he’s not going to replace you, so don’t think like that. Even if he played the same role, he’ll never be _you_ , Koushi.”

Daichi hummed his agreement. “I’m with Yui on this one. You’re far too valuable to this team to start worrying now. Besides, we haven’t even decided to keep him.”

Which wasn’t exactly reassuring, considering if they didn’t keep Kageyama, they’d be _facing_ him.

Koushi lifted a nervous hand to the back of his neck, but before he could open his mouth to protest, Yui beat him to it.

“Fine. If you’re going all emotionally wimpy like Asahi, just train more. There’s nowhere to go but forward, right?”

Koushi paused for a moment before regarding them both with a guilty grin, thoroughly chastised.

“True, true. Since we’re going pro together when we graduate, I guess I’ll just have to work harder,” he replied. Neither alpha beside him noticed the wobble in his smile, and that was fine, he told himself.

Everything was fine.

“That’s the spirit!” Yui cheered, raising a fist in the air. Daichi tightened the arm around his waist, and Koushi wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to lean in close.

“I’ve been wondering,” Daichi offered up after a minute, “but Hinata’s an omega, isn’t he? Does he even have his Playmate’s permission to duel?”

Koushi squinted at the scanned application, silent for so long that Yui joined him in staring at the screen. “Um…,” he started, “well, there’s definitely a name here in the permission line, not that I can read it.”

“Isn’t that kind of suspicious?”

Yui laughed at Daichi’s concern, gesturing to the screen with her thumb. “Not if you’d seen the rest of this. It looks like it was written by an elementary schooler who never practices his characters. If we admit him, we’ll just have to make sure he’s really allowed to be here.”

Their attention was grabbed by a serious of whistle blows from across the field, signaling the end of tryouts.

Which, unfortunately, left room for Kageyama v. Hinata: Part 37 to begin as everyone staggered towards the sidelines, and really, at this point, Koushi was actually impressed they could still find things to fight about. Or maybe by now they were just making them up.

“ _If_ we admit him,” Daichi emphasized, irritation washing back over his face like it was his natural state. Which it kind of had been, that morning; Koushi could tell those two had had kept him on edge since tryouts began. Subtly he began to rub Daichi’s upper arm, keeping at it until the muscles began to loosen.

“Does… does Kageyama even know any insults besides ‘dumbass’?” Yui wondered aloud.

Koushi nodded. “I definitely heard a ‘fucking’ or two or ten earlier, plus a ‘dammit’. And he seems to like ‘shitty’ too. Mostly to describe Hinata’s skills, but sometimes as a term of address.”

She nodded sagely in return. “Oh yeah, now that you mention it.”

Daichi pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Regretting your decision to even let them on the field yet?” a new voice spoke up from beside them, and the trio startled.

Tsukishima had wandered over with Yamaguchi in tow, a haughty glint in his honey-colored eyes that never seemed to go away. The brunette lightly elbowed his friend even as he snickered quietly along, which earned him a snarl before Tsukishima turned back to the three juniors and readjusted his glasses primly.

“I think you’ll get used to it pretty quickly,” Yamaguchi offered shyly to his upperclassmen, his shoulders hunched just enough to betray a hint of nerves. Koushi fought the urge to reach out and gather him close, smothering the anxiety away. But Yamaguchi was not on the team yet and that would be weird, he repeated over and over in his head.

“What makes you say that?” asked Koushi instead.

Tsukishima gave him a bland look. “Experience. The King and his queen have been on the same team with us since we were high school freshmen.”

The three juniors paused.

“E-Eh?” Yui stuttered.

Koushi swayed on his feet.

“High school fresh- _four_ years? On the same team?” he cried out. “ _Hinata_ was on your team too?”

Daichi wrenched the tablet out of his grasp and started fanning him with it vigorously, something Koushi appreciated as he gulped down copious amounts of beautiful, fresh oxygen and waited for his vision to clear.

“Four years and counting, if we all get accepted,” Tsukishima added in a tone Koushi couldn’t quite place. He turned and walked away as coolly as he’d shown up that morning, hands in his pockets and Yamaguchi on his heels.

Koushi stared as he retreated, feeling… vaguely threatened? Which was not helping calm his traumatized heart. Because how- how could two people duel together for so long and work together so badly? Hinata and Kageyama treated each other more like arch nemeses than teammates, for gods’ sakes.

He turned to Daichi and Yui, who looked identical in their weary resignation.

It couldn’t be helped, then. Five beautiful applicants. Four offers to give and gamble.

Nothing about this decision was going to be easy, but it needed to be made. So they signaled the team over to do just that.

 

***

 

Yamaguchi Tadashi was reeling.

Dumbfounded. Thrilled. Absolutely floored, as he wandered Hanadai’s massive campus, still wondering how exactly the planets had aligned for that morning to play out in the single best way. Not Karasuno’s tryouts themselves, necessarily, but afterwards.

Stage one of The Game.

(The Bet was Tsukki’s secret thrill, but The Game was _his_.)

He’d snickered on and off at the memory of the captains’ faces for a solid hour in their half-unpacked dorm room, to the point that Tsukki had actually given him a single concerned glance before turning back to his documentary.

It was his favorite part of being friends with Shouyou and Tobio: getting to play The Game. Because as famous as Tobio was, Shouyou had been pretty successful in staying out of the spotlight throughout his high school dueling career. As a result, pretty much no one knew who he was.

And that meant that Tadashi got to watch every new person at Hanadai who interacted with Shouyou and Tobio play The Game: the slow, horrifying realization of just exactly what their relationship was, in all its ridiculous glory. And it was nothing short of hilarious. The stunned faces, either ghostly pale or flushed with shock. The gaping mouths and wide eyes. The whispered curses, because there was no way what they were witnessing was real, right?

Wrong. Shouyou and Tobio were every bit as absurd as they seemed.

(He meant it in the most loving way, of course, because they were good friends. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.)

Over the years he’d realized that it came in very distinct stages, depending on how often a person saw the pair together. Stage one was the realization that, despite being on the same dueling team for _nearly four years_ , they still fought like they were having a playground hissy-fit. And honestly, the reveal at tryouts that morning was everything he’d been hoping for. Now the second stage, well. Tadashi was bouncing on the balls of his feet, hoping that it would come soon.

A tug on his wrist suddenly brought him back down to earth, and he spun around to face Tsukki’s irritated frown.

“We’ve been walking the campus for twenty minutes. Where again, exactly, did the king order us to meet him?”

Tadashi paused to look around them, realizing that maybe, perhaps, he was a little lost. None of the tall, glass and concrete structures around them, rich with greenery snaking up the sides and a very modern aesthetic, looked remotely familiar from the map he’d studied earlier. But even more to the point, of all the various signs that hung above rows of sliding glass doors, not a single one read ‘Library.’

“Um. The library?”

Tsukki’s eye twitched. “There are six libraries here.”

“…Oh. Um, lemme check.” He quickly raised his left wrist, projecting his recent messages above his watch and scrolling through. “Torino Library?”

Another twitch, and suddenly Tadashi felt very cornered.

“That’s the one connected to our dorm. On the other side of campus,” he breathed out slowly, ever so slowly, because Tsukki was not an outwardly dramatic kind of guy. But that only made him scarier, in Tadashi’s humble opinion.

He cowered just a bit under the weight of his friend’s unimpressed stare.

“But we still have thirty minutes before we’re supposed to mee- um, yeah, ok, nevermi- _eh_?” he cried as Tsukki, eyes hooded and dry, caught him firmly on the wrist and began to drag.

Wisely – or maybe because he was too busy praying for his life – he said nothing on the journey back to where they’d started out, letting Tsukki drag him unrelentingly over several green, grassy quads.

At least he could appreciate the beauty of the campus if he was going to die later that day. Like its name would suggest, Hanadai clearly hadn’t skimped on their gardening budget. Flower beds and manicured trees popped up in what felt like every possible place, seeming right at home with the mountains and pine forests surrounding them in the distance. Overall it created a very natural, calming feel that didn’t mesh well with Tadashi’s current sheepish terror.

But maybe the heavens were on his side, because Tsukki hauled him right up to the correct building and herded him through the doors, apparently letting him live another day.

“Let’s get this over with,” the lanky alpha muttered, settling his old-fashioned headphones around his neck and striding towards the middle of the room.

At least it wasn’t hard to find Tobio once they were inside the library, even with several computer areas and giant wooden shelves dominating the floor. All they had to do was follow the starstruck whispering and pointing from huddles of students half-hiding between the stacks. People stood and stared in droves, all hoping to attract the attention of the school’s most famous incoming freshman.

And ignoring it all in the center of the room, of course, was Tobio. He looked like a high-end menswear ad as he sprawled out on a couch and stared intently at a dueling magazine: the only kind of reading he’d give more than two minutes of his time. Tsukki rolled his eyes – at Tobio or his poorly hidden fans, Tadashi wasn’t sure – and walked off into the nonfiction stacks. Probably to check out what kind of stock the university had concerning paleontology.

(A lot, Tadashi would guess, based on the size of the major. It was the main reason Tsukki hadn’t minded coming here, even if he’d complained loudly about “following the moronic duo onto a team for another four years.”

Tadashi hadn’t dared point out that there were dozens of dueling teams at this school he could try out for, and if Tsukki was following anyone, it was his brother.

That was a land mine he’d never be brave enough to step on, probably.)

Moving to sit opposite his friend, Tadashi chose a random armchair, sinking into the cushions so deep that he was afraid he’d need help getting out. Yep, this was definitely his spot from now on.

“How do you think it went today?” he whispered to Tobio, mindful of their classmates straining to listen in from their hiding places. Some of them looked shocked that he’d just approached like that, their jaws wide and expressions twisted in jealousy, but he’d had years to get used to being friends with _the_ Kageyama Tobio. The attention used to curdle like sour milk in his stomach. These days it was funnier more than anything.

Tobio didn’t even look up from the page. “Fine. Shouyou needs to get his shit together though. And Yachi was a bit slower than usual today, but there were several people on the team who were worse. She’ll be ok as long as she doesn’t get in anyone’s way.”

Tadashi stared, not sure what else he’d been expecting.

“…Right. Well, um. Think we’ll all make it?”

“Of course.” No hesitation, no doubt. Tadashi wished for a brief moment that he could be like that, too. Confident. Confident with _reason_.

“H-Hey! Sorry I’m almost late! I got lost three times on the way before I realized it was the library connected to our dorms!” Hitoka cried from behind them, squeaking when her voice echoed throughout the room and slapping her hands over her mouth, horrified. And then she looked at all the faces staring at _her_ , now, and she dove towards Tadashi’s armchair like it could shield her from their gazes.

Unlike Tadashi, Hitoka had never stopped being terrified of the secondhand spotlight.

(Which was probably pretty fair, ever since a couple of Tobio’s fans decided that he was dating Hitoka in the tenth grade and had gifted her prescription-grade laxative-filled cookies. She’d ended up in the nurse’s office for two straight days, nursing an irritated digestive system and a healthy paranoia towards anyone who worshipped at Tobio’s feet.

…Was it still paranoia once a person was actually poisoned? Tadashi wasn’t sure, but either way, he and Hitoka had been sure to make their relationship _very_ public after that.)

He grinned at the blonde and held out his hand, squeezing hers once when she took it. In response she granted him a soft smile that sent a familiar fit of jitters flying into his stomach.

“Where’s Shouyou? Did I miss anything important?” she whispered to the two of them, so low that Tadashi leaned in to hear.

“Who knows where the queen is. And you didn’t miss anything, other than the king being socially unaware,” assured Tsukki, who reappeared with an armful of textbooks and adjusted his glasses with his free hand. Tadashi wrinkled his nose at the dusty leather bindings – he preferred reading on a tablet himself, but Tsukki had always been a traditionalist like that. Something about the smell and feel of paper in his hands.

Hitoka coughed politely into the silence. Tobio still hadn’t looked up.

“Um, I’m sure whatever Kageyama said wasn’t- wasn’t that… bad,” she finished lamely, because lying had never been her strong suit. Tsukki rolled his eyes again.

“Idiots like that don’t deserve your kindness,” he informed her, and Tobio finally lowered the magazine.

“Who are you calli-”

“Oh good, there you guys are!” a new voice interrupted brightly, barely toeing the line of acceptable volume inside a library. “I was worried we’d have to hunt you all down separately.”

Into the sitting area walked Sugawara “Just call me Suga” Koushi, Karasuno’s vice captain. The silver-blonde hadn’t run any drills with them that morning, watching from the sidelines instead. He’d looked a little pale earlier, especially after the stage one reveal of The Game, so Tadashi had been concerned that maybe he was sick. But right now the guy seemed as chipper as Hinata on a particularly calm day. Which was still extra chipper.

He was tailed by the male captain – Daichi, as he’d asked to be called. Well, tailed wasn’t really the right word. More like Daichi had his hands locked around the smiling omega’s waist and was being dragged forward, a contentedness on his face that said he didn’t mind the setup one bit. It was kind of a silly sight, made funnier by a horde of other teammates following them in with amused grins, except this many Karasuno members looking for them could only mean one thing.

They’d be announcing their offers.

Tadashi’s heart suddenly felt like it might beat right out of his chest; his clothes felt too tight, too constricting, and a bead of sweat or two might’ve fallen down his face.

He’d never had to deal with this specific kind of fear before, not really. Middle school dueling was a joke, a time meant more for linguistic exploration than anything else. And high school had been a special case. They’d made their own team, after all, and they hadn’t had to worry about being cut. But now…

Now someone else had control over whether or not he’d get to stay with his friends. Because Karasuno was where Tsukki was meant to be, and Shouyou certainly hadn’t shut up about it for as long as he’d known him. This was clearly where the others would stay.

Like an overrunning well they bubbled up, the thoughts he never fully managed to stamp down. A litany of _What will I do if I don’t make it, and they all do?_

_Will they stay and leave me behind? Will they even care? Will I ever be good enough to match them?_

Honestly, he didn’t know.

Hitoka must’ve been cycling through the same thoughts, since her hand turned clammy and her breathing became concerningly audible. Strangely enough it always had a sort of calming effect, seeing her even more nervous than he was. With a slowing heart and newfound determination, he laced their shaking fingers together tight and refused to let her go.

(As long as he wasn’t alone, he’d be fine.)

He tried not to let their hands waver when Suga looked at them brightly and said, “We’re ready to give out our contract offers, finally. Sorry it took us so long! Except… ah, um, should we go somewhere else?” he finished slowly, seeming to notice just how many eyes were on the group.

Daichi stepped up then, finally disentangling himself from Suga.

“No, this should be fine,” he said, fixing the areas around them with a disappointed scowl so firm that Tadashi felt the urge to apologize himself. More than a few terrified squeaks sounded out alongside hurried rustling and footsteps scrambling away.

Tadashi hoped their audience was actually gone and not just looking for a more concealed vantage point; he didn’t really want any more witnesses to this.

Because _what if he didn’t make it, what if he failed, what if he had to go find another team, what if he couldn’t duel with Tsukki and Hitoka anymore, what if-_

Daichi cleared his throat, and the freshmen snapped to attention. Suga put a hand on the alpha’s chest, though, stopping him in his tracks.

“Say, Daichi, aren’t we missing-”

“It’s fine!” a brunette girl immediately interrupted, giving Suga a pointed look and grabbing his hand in hers. “It’s _fine_.”

“Ah, right,” he said, giving them both a hesitant smile. “Sorry Daichi. You can go on.”

Daichi nodded.

“Right. Well, I know you all met Suga and me this morning, but here’s my co-captain, Michimiya Yui. And of course you played with the rest of these guys,” he began, nodding to the eight or so other team members while they waved and offered cheerful greetings. “Let me start by saying you all gave us a great practice this morning, and certainly a lot to think about. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was very impressed with what I saw, and Karasuno would be lucky to have any of you.”

Well that sounded promising. Tadashi glanced around to see Tsukki and Tobio lean in while Hitoka swayed on the armrest, her trembles subsiding.

“However, we only have four offers.”

And then Tadashi was the one trembling harder than ever, desperately searching for air that seemed to have been sucked out of the room entirely.

Suga lightly brushed at the back of his own neck. “We would love to accept all five applicants to the team, but…” he trailed off, turning to the other captain with a pleading look. Michimiya stepped up to finish his sentence, and by this point black spots were swimming in front of Tadashi’s eyes, no oxygen in sight.

“Let’s start with the good news first!” the girl exclaimed brightly, holding up a stack of papers. _Contracts_. “Here I have an offer for… let’s see, um, Yamaguchi!”

He didn’t move at first.

But then: “That- that’s _me_?” he replied dumbly, more question than statement, and the co-captain laughed.

“Yessir, it is. Welcome to the team, if you accept!”

Finally, _finally_ he could breathe again, and everything in the world felt right, even if his body shook and his heart hammered like he’d just run a marathon. But he would recover, because he’d made the team.

_He’d made it_. He wouldn’t be left behind.

He was so relieved, so busy refilling his body with air and happiness and _thank the gods I made it_ , that he nearly missed Tsukki and Hitoka being handed their contracts. Tsukki accepted his with an air of cool expectation while Hitoka looking on the verge of passing out, probably a mirror image of himself just thirty seconds ago. A couple teammates – _Tadashi’s_ teammates, now, if he accepted, all three of theirs – rushed to her side, fussing over her until she stopped heaving enough to breathily assure them that yes she’d be ok, probably, maybe.

The three of them had made the cut. A team had decided Tadashi was good enough to stand beside the rest of them on the field.

Slowly his vision cleared and an unfamiliar burst of contentedness jolted through him, warm and thrilling all at once. He couldn’t wait to go out on the field next, with his old teammates and new. He couldn’t wait to taste the rush of magic running up his lungs and pouring out of his mouth.

Everything was calm and beautiful and why had he even been scared, again? Had he ever been this happy before?

He just wasn’t sure, not about anything besides this wonderful, wonderful content.

Except without his heart and his thoughts racing, he was able to look around and realize that Michimiya hadn’t handed out the final contract yet. And the only two people left were Shouyou and Tobio.

Which meant that one of them was going to get cut.

Now, Tadashi had seen some crazy things in his short lifetime. Like the first time Tobio had wielded Shouyou’s magic back in high school, or the day Hitoka’s emotive scent abilities manifested and she’d accidentally released so much anxiety that half of their history class passed out.

But if he was about to see _the Kageyama Tobio_ be cut from a dueling team during tryouts, then this world was crazier than he thought. Kicked off a team for poor communication, sure. It’d happened once before. But cut before he was given a chance to try, with the insane amount of skill that he’d showed off that morning? Surely no one was that insane. Dueling aside, Tobio was one of the greatest magic-users of their generation, plain and simple. He’d made Class 1 Rank A by age _sixteen_ , the tenth youngest person to do so. _Ever_. He was practically legendary.

Which left Shouyou on the chopping block.

Shouyou, who loved dueling maybe more than Tobio did. Shouyou, who had levels of potential that Tadashi didn’t fully understand.

Shouyou, who’d had his eyes on Karasuno since he was in elementary school, Tadashi knew. For almost ten years of his life, joining Karasuno had been his living, breathing dream. It was the only reason he’d come to Hanano Daigaku. The reason he’d studied with Tsukki and Hitoka late into the night for months trying to pass the entrance exam, the reason he’d convinced Tobio to come here too – not that Tobio had needed much convincing, in the end.

And it looked like that might’ve been Shouyou’s biggest mistake.

But maybe there was some mistake here, too. Because there was absolutely no way anyone would put _Tadashi_ on a dueling team before Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio.

Tadashi wanted to reach out for the contentedness that had started to fade away, as if he could grab it and hold on to it tight. But reality had already sunk in: the five of them weren’t going to duel together, anymore.

Michimiya cleared her throat in a pretty good impression of Daichi and clutched the last paper to her chest.

“This last one, um. Gods, this is hard,” she murmured, steeling herself before turning to address Tobio. “While we’d love to offer both you and Hinata a post, it’s just that… well, you two-”

“You know what?” Suga interrupted, and the two captains turned to him curiously. “Honestly, Kageyama, we’re not sure about your ability to communicate with Hinata. Ah, _not_ with his magic-” he said with a raised hand as Tobio looked like he was about to protest, “with him, the person. And we were only going to keep one of you because of it. But what if we gave you both another chance to prove that you can work together as a team?”

_Thank the gods_. Tadashi sank even further into the chair with relief. Another chance was exactly what they needed. The dread that had been creeping over his skin fell away, soothed by the determination in Suga’s voice.

His friends would prove themselves, and they’d all get to keep dueling together. Everything was perfect again, thanks to one Sugawara Koushi. Like a dream. He wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time, almost giddy with relief. The tension dripped out of his body for good this time, hopefully.

“Ohh, a second chance?” Michimiya piped up. “Hmm… I like the sound of that. We have until next week to submit our final roster, too. Good idea, Suga!” She shot him a thumbs up, looking grateful to no longer be the bearer of bad news. Tadashi could relate – _he_ certainly wouldn’t ever want to cut people from a team. That kind of responsibility was not for him, no thanks.

Daichi, too, seemed pleased. “I agree. Now, it’s bold of us to assume that Karasuno is actually the first choice team for either of you, no matter what you wrote on your forms, but-”

“It is,” Tobio interrupted him. Immediate and firm.

The older alpha’s eyes widened at the bluntness, or maybe the implication, but he quickly recovered.

“…I see. Well, then. Dueling is a team sport. Strong communicative teams win together, and non-communicative ones don’t. So what do you say? Let’s have a practice match with you and Hinata and-”

“Hmm? What about me?” a curious, scratchy voice mumbled from behind the group. It sent delighted shivers of anticipation curling through Tadashi’s limbs, even as the rest of the group startled. Or everyone except for Tobio and Tsukki startled, at least, because surely they’d _known_. Shouyou would have seen Tobio’s text to meet in the library at some point, after all. He wondered if they’d been waiting for this too.

Tadashi couldn’t stop a private smile.

He was glad he _could_ smile about Shouyou’s presence, again, now that he knew his friend wasn’t immediately getting cut. It meant he was allowed to fully enjoy this beautiful moment. Because clearly he’d pleased some divine presence enough for three of his dreams to come true today: making the team and witnessing stages one _and_ two of The Game.

Stage two was imminent. It had to be, he knew, because he’d known Shouyou and Tobio long enough to have a pretty solid idea of how their afternoon had gone down. And considering _that_ , he had a good guess of what Shouyou looked like just about then, unless the redhead had checked the mirror before he’d left his room. Tadashi had also known him long enough to know that he most definitely hadn’t.

Gods, this was going to be a good one.

When Tadashi turned around, he knew he was right.

Standing behind the team was Shouyou, rubbing his eyes and looking like a teenage alpha’s wet dream in that ‘I-just-got-thoroughly-fucked-and-now-I’m-sleepy-and-cuddly-and-content’ kind of way. The kicker was that he definitely had no idea either, considering he’d actually left his room. Shouyou wasn’t (usually) as shameless as history would indicate.

An oddly synchronized inhale from the team jarred the silence of the library. If Tadashi listened close, he thought he might’ve heard gasping from the stacks, too. Not that he could blame them.

The thing was, Tadashi had never believed in sex hair before he’d met Shouyou and Tobio. Before those two, things like sex hair, things like stolen t-shirts that fell off one shoulder to revealed hickey-marred skin, weren’t real. They were all a machination of New Hollywood and bad young adult erotica cashing in on the fantasies of lonely teens.

But here was Shouyou, shuffling into the library with a t-shirt that read ‘supporter soul’ falling off one shoulder, flaunting skin saturated with darkened bruises up and down his collarbone, and sporting wild, mussed up hair, all of which could only mean one thing: he had very clearly just been sexed. And when he lethargically made his way straight over to Tobio, yawning and plopping down to rest on the teen’s lap, there was no question as to who had done the sexing.

Tobio immediately readjusted his legs to accommodate for the new weight of Shouyou’s head, and his left arm moved to caress Shouyou’s bare right shoulder so automatically that Tadashi wasn’t even sure if he was aware of it. Shouyou sighed gently as he closed his eyes and squirmed until he apparently found a relaxing position on his makeshift pillow.

The team stared.

The team gaped.

There was a cough somewhere in the background.

“Mm, Tobio, why’d you leave the bed?” Shouyou murmured.

Someone choked on air.

“I told you I wanted to check out the new issue of _Magic Monthly_. Why’d _you_ leave the bed?”

“I woke up and I was cold,” he huffed, opening his eyes to narrow them pointedly. Tobio didn’t glance away from his page.

“Turn the heat up, dumbass,” he replied, tugging up Shouyou’s t-shirt to cover his exposed collarbone and holding him just the slightest bit tighter.

Except, in covering one side of his collarbone, Tobio accidentally revealed a little bit of the other. The other side where Shouyou’s current bonding mark sat proudly on the skin above his trapezius muscle.

It wasn’t necessarily an odd sight. All omegas had them by law by age fifteen, which meant a lot of alphas and betas did too, and most wore them on display all the time without a second thought.

But Shouyou’s looked raw and irritated like an open wound, as if it had been thoroughly attacked for the better part of the afternoon.

Broken skin meant exposed scent.

Tobio’s scent.

Tadashi could tell the exact moment the team made the connection, that these two weren’t just fucking.

They were _Playmates_.

Tadashi was about to die inside – this was everything he’d wanted out of going to the same university. He turned to meet Tsukki’s gaze, a look that told him the blonde was definitely about to die too, but for completely different reasons.

“I can’t figure out the thermostat,” grumbled Shouyou, frowning like the thing had personally offended him.

“Second button in the third column. Hold it down for three seconds then select the temperature. Dumbass.”

“So rude, Stupidyama.”

“Don’t call me stupid when I’m helping you, stupid.”

Shouyou stuck his tongue out and closed his eyes again.

Tadashi wondered if anyone on the team had taken a breath yet. Tanaka was looking a little blue, now that he thought about it. Actually, the dead silence around them made it feel as if the entire library was holding its breath, suspended in time as the situation sunk in.

After a few long, tense moments, Shouyou slowly reopened his eyes and murmured, “Say, why’s Karasuno all here? Were you guys talking about magic?”

It was a testament to his fatigue that it had taken him this long to bring up dueling in conversation. Tobio must’ve really worn him out… and no, _no_ , that was a track his train of thought did not need to travel down. Ever.

Michimiya blinked several times. “Um… n-”

“Yes!” Suga interrupted again. “Yes we were! We’re here to offer you and Kageyama conditional acceptance to Karasuno, provided that you play an extra practice match for us and prove that you can work together.”

“Eh? Play _with_ him? Like, not against him?”

Suga seemed to freeze. “Is that a problem? Weren’t you guys on the same team throughout high school?”

Shouyou’s brows furrowed, like he was thinking hard. And maybe he was. He had just woken up, after all. “Sure, but we never actually competed in the same events.”

“Ah. Well, we’d like you to start now. All of our members need to be ready to play any event with any other team member at any time. It’s just how we do things here. You want to join Karasuno, right?”

“I- I do! I really, really do!” Shouyou cried, shooting up on the sofa and turning his wide brown eyes towards Suga. They shone, pleading and burning all at the same time. Suga coughed.

“G-Good. Then you can definitely learn to work together, right?”

“Right! Right!” Shouyou chirped while Tobio scoffed and rolled his eyes, offering a confident “Of course.”

“How’s Watersday, then?” Daichi interjected. “During normal practice hours. We’ll do a three-v-three hybrid, but it’ll be Capture the Flag this time. And how about- hmm… Tanaka? How about you join their team as the third?”

The bald-headed alpha jerked to a stand, staring at his captain with a scowl.

“Hah? Why would I want to duel with these two troublemakers?”

Daichi arched a fine brow. “Oh? You’re saying you can’t match with a couple of freshmen?”

“That’s-” started Tanaka, scowling as a healthy flush spread across his face, “that’s not what I meant at all, of course. I can handle these brats no problem! Leave it to me!”

“Watersday?” Shouyou squeaked suddenly. “That’s only four days away! Tobio, we need to practice, like, now! Get up, we need to practice! Meet me on the field!”

“It’s your fault for wanting to screw instead of practice, dumbass!”

“You agreed to screw! You said it’s stamina training anyway! And now look, we only have _four days_! I’m going to the field! I _have_ to join Karasuno, I have to!”

As dramatically as he’d entered, but with far more energy, Shouyou sped out of the library.

“Oi, wait for me, dumbass!” Tobio shouted, earning more than a few cringes from the team. Any privacy they may have gained before was definitely gone now. The alpha jumped to his feet, racing after his Playmate while the others stared at the emptiness in their wake.

The silence sat, thick and strained and so, so full of unanswered questions that it made Tadashi squirm in anticipation. A beat, then ten more. Waiting.

And then-

“You’re kidding me.”

“No _fucking_ way.”                                                                                                                                                                           

“Wait, what? Seriously?” Tanaka piped up loudly, his hands banging on the coffee table in palpable outrage. “Are you trying to tell me that this entire day, all of that fighting and yelling and insulting each other and competing, that’s their own weird version of…” his sentence died off at the end while he gaped like a bald fish.

“Foreplay?” Tsukki finished for him without looking up from his book. “Unfortunately.”

“That… is actually a little bit appalling,” Ennoshita announced after a long moment of silence.

“It- it’s not f-f-fore… _play_ ,” Hitoka stuttered in a horrified whisper before clearing her throat a couple times. “Eh, it’s just. Them? Like, how they are with each other?”

“Um, you really do get used to it, somehow,” Tadashi tried to appease. It was pretty hard not to grin wildly with Hitoka such a startling shade of red and one of the third year alphas – Mao, Tadashi remembered – poorly concealing her laughter as coughs.

Nishinoya, sounding mortally offended, cried out, “Forget that! Focus on the real issue here! How does someone like _him_ end up with a cute omega for a Playmate, and Tanaka and I, a couple of fine, very eligible gentlemen are sitting over here mateless? This is anarchy! Blasphemy! Sacrilege!”

“I’m not quite sure you know what all of those words mean,” Suga blandly replied at the same time Daichi raised a brow and repeated, “Gentlemen?”

Kinoshita – or maybe it was Narita – lifted a shoulder. “I mean, it can’t hurt to be a rich, well-known magical prodigy of an alpha, and fairly attractive and really muscled too, and- you know what, actually, how are you even remotely surprised? Like, at all?”

“Oi, are you saying I don’t have all those qualities too?” Tanaka protested.

“Um, yes?” Ennoshita shot back in place of his friend. “You have maybe two.”

Tanaka’s eyes narrowed in a weird mix of hope and outrage. “Wait, which two?”

“I… well, I…. You know what?” Daichi spluttered with a loud clap of his hands, relieving some of the tension in the room. All eyes turned to their captain.

“Seriously, which two?” Tanaka demanded.

“What?” Suga asked his Playmate, ignoring the bald-headed spectacle before them.

(There was an air of familiarity in the group interactions that made something in Tadashi ache. That connection, that bond that was a real team. He _wanted_.)

Daichi regarded the group one at a time, relief eclipsing his previously dumbfounded expression.

“If they’re Playmates, then surely they’ll be able to communicate just fine,” he said, gesturing to the empty couch as if to say _look how in sync they were just a minute ago_. “They should pass the test no problem, and that means Karasuno can have five new members. Welcome to the team.”

Tadashi and Tsukki shared a significant look.

Karasuno truly didn’t know what it was in for.

 

***

 

It was a beautiful, brand new day and Koushi wanted to cry.

“Are- are they new Playmates?” Daichi ventured as they stared at the disaster in front of them.

Koushi couldn’t have asked it better himself. After the now-infamous Library Incident, he’d thought yesterday had been a fluke. An off day, maybe, or perhaps even a short-lived lover’s quarrel. From the gentle( _ish_ ) way they’d handled each other in the library, Koushi had assumed that the pair would come out to their “secret” practice this morning and sync as effortlessly as they had on that couch.

He hadn’t imagined… this.

(He should have, though. He’d seen the warning signs. The many, _many_ warning signs. All of them, really.)

This was a mistake. Sneaking up on Hinata and Kageyama’s private practice was a mistake. Staying to watch them together was a mistake. Magic itself was a mistake.

Tsukishima – who Koushi hadn’t even realized was _there_ ; gods, how did he keep doing that – interrupted his internal despair with a snort, causing Yamaguchi to poke him in the side despite his own poorly concealed grin.

“The king and his queen have been Playmates since they were fifteen,” the taller of the two supplied blandly. “Longer than we’ve even been a team.”

Daichi blanched beside him. “P-Playmates since they were-”

“- _Fifteen?_ ” Koushi finished for him in a dismayed cry. “Almost four years of being Playmates _and_ on a team and they still communicate like _that?_ ”

“Regretting your invitation yet?” the blonde alpha snarked in an eerily similar repeat of the previous day, prompting Yamaguchi to snarl lightly this time. To which Tsukishima snarled right back, louder, and his friend immediately ducked his head in sheepish submission. Koushi wanted to snicker – Tsukishima had turned his head already, looking disinterestedly around the field, and Koushi was willing to bet no one caught him knocking his hand lightly against the beta’s. But he’d file Yamaguchi’s pleased flush and their adorable friendship away for later (with pictures, hopefully), because they had more important issues to address at the moment. Bigger issues. Two wild, powerful, and apparently uncontrollable issues.

And oh gods, that was fire. The field was on fire.

Hinata yelped in surprise at the disaster of his own making as Kageyama sighed and doused the area in a small downpour, killing the flames and drenching the redhead in the process. And wow, Hinata – who now vaguely resembled a drowned cat, hissing and bared teeth and all – really did not look pleased with that turn of events.

Oh gods, oh gods now he was flinging fire, there was fire being flung, and-

Koushi stared in disbelief while Daichi apparently decided they were done hiding and stalked over to the pair himself, shadows over his eyes as he hung his head. Well, at least this would be over quickly.

But now Koushi was reunited with the urge to sob, because seriously, he’d really like to know: since when had Playmates on the same team turned into a disadvantage?

There had to be something he could do to fix this. And for that, he needed to plan.

Without a word to his teammates, he turned and hightailed it back to the easiest place for him to think.

*

“Sugawara,” a deep, steady voice called out, and Koushi snapped his head up from where it had been buried in his notes to see Kageyama standing next to one of the library stacks. He squinted when light from the setting sun poured through the glass windows to hit his eyes; when had it gotten so late? Letting out a half yawn, Koushi wiped the smudged lead off his hands with his dark t-shirt, subtly shifting his tablet over the paper he’d been brainstorming on.

He wasn’t ready for anyone to see his plans, not quite yet.

A quick glance around told him they were alone in this section of the library, the first time Koushi hadn’t seen a wave of admirers following in Kageyama’s wake – not that the alpha ever gave them a second glance.

“Suga’s fine,” he offered, swiveling his chair to fully face the teen. There was an earnestness in Kageyama’s stare as he regarded his vice-captain.

“I looked in the applicant message board yesterday. No one posted anything about where the official contract announcements for Karasuno would be held. You found us in the library by accident, didn’t you?”

Koushi nodded, wary.

Truthfully he’d checked the school’s gossip news feed to find Kageyama’s location, hoping he wouldn’t have to post anything on the applicant message board. Hoping that Kageyama would be able to summon his old teammates, instead, if they weren’t already with him. Some of them, anyway. It was pure luck that everyone Koushi had wanted to talk to was already in that library, and that the one person he’d wanted to avoid hadn’t been.

He’d felt bad for his underhanded tactics for a split second until Yui had stepped in.

And suddenly Koushi knew where this was going.

“You were going to offer me the last spot, weren’t you? That’s why you didn’t mind giving the others their contracts in front of me yesterday. You were going to cut Shouyou.”

Koushi flattened his lips at the observation – a surprisingly socially aware one, for what he’d seen of the alpha – but didn’t bother denying it. There was nothing to deny.

Kageyama muttered a curse to the floor with a darkening scowl. Nothing unusual there, except the appearance of a strange light in his gaze this time. It made Koushi cock his head, curious.

Then the alpha stood up straight, suddenly, and pinned Koushi in place with a single unreadable look.

“I’m going to turn him into someone who will never be cut again.”

It sounded more like a threat than a promise, but more surprising than anything was a growing fire in those blue eyes. It was a look he’d seen on Kageyama a few times before, always when-

“I’ll be going then,” the alpha startled him out of his train of thought before turning towards the exit.

It took Koushi a few moments to understand what was happening before he could force out a weak “Eh? Ah, ok then….” 

More to himself, really, since Kageyama was already stalking out of the room. Koushi watched the doorway long after the massive thing had swung back closed with a metal click of finality.

The gears were already turning in his mind.

 

***


	2. The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I never fully understood how ridiculously happy comments, kudos, and bookmarks could make a person until I actually got some. It took me a very long time to work up the courage to post my first chapter since I’m a nervous wreck, and I told myself I’d be thrilled to get any sort of positive reaction. I was absolutely blown away with 31 kudos and several comments that seriously made my week and really encouraged me to keep going. 
> 
> I think this chapter has a little bit of a different tone, so I hope it doesn’t disappoint anyone who was looking forward to this. But next chapter will go back to present events! For the next eight or so chapters in my current outline, they’ll alternate between the present story of the Karasuno gang and the past story of how exactly Kagehina and co. came to be and what they were up to in high school.
> 
> Also I went back and edited a few things from the first chapter because I’m a sleep deprived moron and used a couple names (first vs. last for different POVs) incorrectly. If you see mistakes here or have constructive criticism, feel free to let me know :)
> 
> Anyway, I’m going to try my best amidst my job and classes to keep to a weekly updating schedule (two weeks at worst), which I have been informed does not constitute “slow updates,” so I removed that tag.

***

_January 18 th, 529 P.C. – the Past_

 

 

When Tobio dreamed, it was a nightmare.

He was facing Kitagawa Daiichi, every last player on the team staring through him as if he wasn’t there. Between them the dueling field lay cracked, splintered.

Tobio stood alone.

“You think you’re so good ’cause you’re a mental duelist? You think you’re special? Give me a break. Everything was given to you. All the money in the world to pay for a linguistic diagnostician. A language that’s simple to learn. You’ve never had to work hard a day in your life, so stop telling us what to do!”

“ _That’s not it_ ,” he couldn’t stop from snarling. But he paused.

( _:Never tell the other humans that you can hear us. You should not be able to:_ the magic told him when he was a child _. :Can you promise us this?:_ )

“I do work hard. You should too.”

Scoffs and sneers, pointed at him like weapons cocked and ready to go. “Gods. Everything is easy for you, isn’t it. Even saying shit like that.”

“I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t ask to be able to-”

( _:Never tell the other humans that you can hear us:)_

“-I didn’t choose my last name or my language. But I chose to become a supporter, and I’m choosing to use my magic to make you better!”

“Using it to be a dictator, more like. Kageyama Tobio: King of the Field.”

The voices that lurked around in his memories rose up again, one by one.

“You’re a lousy communicator.”

“We don’t want to duel with you anymore.”

“We won’t emit for you.”

“Kageyama,” his coach said, shaking his head back and forth. “Step off the field.”

One moment he was stalking away from his old team, a burning sense of loss filling him up inside as his future suddenly became blurred and uncertain.

(Each step landed heavy on the ground, only getting worse the farther and farther from the field his feet took him. Like they wanted him to go back.)

“ _Kageyama!_ ”

The next moment he was jerked awake as what felt like a screen pointer rapped against his forehead a few times, and he shot up ramrod straight in his chair.

The dream withered away, allowing consciousness to seep back in as he remembered where and when he was.

Right. He wasn’t fourteen, wasn’t in middle school. And he wasn’t on a dueling team. Not anymore.

Giggling was the next thing he registered, coming at him from all angles of the spacious classroom, and he looked up to see the kids in his freshman English class doing a shitty job of hiding their amusement.

Tsukishima in particular caught his eye, with his tilted head, delighted smirk, and ability to brush off Tobio’s well-sharpened glare as if he didn’t notice it at all. And _that_ was more irritating than the snickers.

“Your mother is a major contributor to the Restorationist party, isn’t she?” the tall blonde asked, making Tobio’s glare shift into a confused frown more than anything else. Because what did his mom’s political dealings have to do with anything?

Tsukishima smirked his dumb smirk again. Or maybe his face was just going back to its natural state; Tobio wasn’t sure.

“She might want to stop, for your sake. Feel free to join us anytime in the digital age, king.”

“ _Don’t call me that_ ,” he immediately growled, then paused for a beat, adding, “You have a paper book for this class.” If anyone needed to join the digital age, it was the blonde.

In fact, Tsukishima was always parading around with his paper products like he was special, as if the Restorationist party hadn’t brought them back into popularity a few decades ago. As if that made him better than everyone else.

(Gods, he hated Tsukishima.)

“I have paper because I know how to keep it in my hands, where it belongs,” he shot back. Even more snickers rose up, then, and Tobio was definitely missing something.

“What-”

“ _Boys_ ,” Ms. Shinozaki snapped, causing both teens to startle. Tsukishima casually sat back and stared off in the distance like he’d never spoken at all, while Tobio shot him one last glare before scowling at his desk. Their teacher only sighed.

“Kageyama,” she called out much softer this time, drawing his attention to her tired green eyes, “please remove the paper from your face.”

His hand moved to his face where, now that she mentioned it, he could feel a piece of his notebook paper stuck to his cheek with drool.

Oh. _Oh_.

The giggles around him became outright laughter, which he dutifully ignored even as he could feel heat snaking up his neck. Scowling, he ripped the sheet away and crumpled it on his desk, hoping no one had snuck a picture.

Someone had almost definitely snuck a picture.

“This is the third time this month you’ve slept in my class, Kageyama,” the brunette beta continued her soft reprimand. “Although I’ll admit I’m relieved you laid down and closed your eyes this time.”

A new round of snickering flittered through the air, alongside a wave of murmurs that sounded suspiciously like “the whites of his eyes” and “so _scary_.”

While ignoring Ms. Shinozaki and slipping back into the paradise of sleep was sounding better by the second, her status as his favorite teacher afforded her more respect than that, he supposed. Attempting to focus it was.

“It’s only the beginning of the semester. Do you not find English important to your future at all?”

“Yes ma’am!” Tobio blurted out of reflex in his sleep-muddled state, and even he could tell it was just a touch too loud. “…I meant no, ma’am,” he haltingly corrected.

Ms. Shinozaki sighed again, a sound that was immediately drowned out by cackling laughter. At least two people had tears in their eyes, and Tobio was really starting to get confused. Sure, he didn’t always get the jokes that other people told, but he was pretty confident that him making an ass of himself wasn’t _that_ funny.

“I would think that as an aspiring duelist you’d want to pay attention in any sort of language class. But never mind that now. You need to go to the office. Immediately, Kageyama,” she commanded, her posture emitting authority that he’d never noticed she possessed.

Tobio paled and gripped his desk. “I’ll stay awake, I-”

“I’m not sending you to the headmaster,” she interrupted him, and he hunched over in relief. If he was put on academic probation then his magical privileges would be suspended too. “I’m sending you wherever _she_ says. She arrived for you while you were… occupied.”

The teacher pointed to the classroom door where a short blonde girl was clinging to the frame, half-hidden and shaking. She looked like she might’ve been in one of his other classes, but it was hard to tell with her hair and her arms doing their best to cover her face like that.

“P-P-Please c-come with me, Kage-” she squeaked, her voice failing before she cleared her throat a few times. “K-Kageyama. I have a note for you. From the g-g-guidance office.”

And there went his relief.

Nothing involving the guidance office was good news, from the horrifying awkwardness of mandatory dynamic counseling to the mind-numbing boredom of college and career planning. Or even – shit, he really hoped he wasn’t being called down for a family-style disciplinary intervention with his mother. It was still January, but if someone had posted another picture of him sleeping in class on social media, he was living on borrowed time.

Oh, gods. That had to be it.

(At least he wasn’t blushing, anymore. In fact, it felt like blood might not ever reach his face again.)

The teacher cleared her throat and pinned him with a stare that made his skin crawl even worse than his mother’s disapproving scowl. Which would’ve been really impressive if the stare hadn’t been aimed at him.

But it was, and it froze him in place as some deep-rooted part of his instincts told him that he was prey. The scent of disapproval she was leaking didn’t help either, a very deliberate and terrifying message.

She was _not happy_.

“However, that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook here. You and I are going to have a talk about this-” she twirled her finger lazily towards Tobio, his desk, and the incriminating drool-covered paper, “-later. As soon as you’re finished in the office.”

Betas were stereotyped as the calm ones, not scary at all.

What a joke.

(Suddenly facing his mother didn’t seem so bad.)

He gulped and delivered a shaky “Y-yes, ma’am!” before rushing out of the classroom, bag and notebook in tow.

The little blonde – and she was tiny, barely reaching Tobio’s armpits – scrambled backwards when he got into the hallway, still hiding behind her hair. She shook it away from her eyes just enough for Tobio to realize that he did know her, though. They had the same Fundamentals of Linguistics class, not that he had any idea what the girl’s name was.

That didn’t stop her from violently bowing to him, her head nearing the floor, and he frowned. Weren’t they in the same grade?

“I’m Y-Y-Yachi Hitoka! I just started working for the guidance o-office in my free period. Please f-f-follow me,” she squeaked again, conveniently, before scurrying away. Even when he tried to match her pace she kept about ten feet between them, but he figured that was ok. It meant he could enjoy the walk in silence.

It was kind of freeing, being away from all the snickering and laughter, all of the people, all of the attention, all of the _noise_.

Silence had always been the quickest way to calm him down.

Well, silence and the unparalleled thrill of magic thrumming through his bloodstream, flaring to the beat of his pulse, gathering in his hands and being molded into something usable. Something potent and powerful and his alone, something he could control. But he wasn’t in his Magical Applications class and he hadn’t found a new dueling team yet – wasn’t sure he even _could_ , ever since the disaster that was Kitagawa Daiichi – so the silence of the abandoned high school hallway would have to do.

_:Thinking of magic again, child?:_

Tobio faltered in his step before quickly regaining his balance. He hadn’t meant to summon any energy, but he let its comforting weight brush against his mind anyway. The familiar feeling of togetherness gently caressed each atom his body.

Gods, how he loved magic.

_:Always:_ he responded in his mind, and he was gratified when little tendrils of blue burst into existence next to his fingertips, twirling around like snowflakes caught in the wind. A little rush of something unnamable flittered down his spine as it did whenever magic responded to him. He’d have to be careful, though. Emittance wasn’t allowed outside of designated areas, and he really couldn’t afford a detention. Especially with the way Yachi kept sneaking fearful glances backwards, as if _she_ could get in trouble from _him_.

She hadn’t noticed that he’d evoked his magic, yet, but she would soon.

_:You are concerned, child:_

He bit his lip and idly stepped in and out of colored patterns on the tile floor, courtesy of sunlight filtering through expensive stained glass. A green one, then a yellow one, then three more green. The blue tendrils of magic left his fingertips to join the colors, flittering about on the floor and making shapes before dissipating back into the part of the universe they came from.

_:I’ve been summoned to the office. I might be in trouble. I… I might be banned from Magical Applications for a few days, if it’s a disciplinary thing:_

Immediately it felt as if calm was injected straight into his heart. Tension faded from his frame as he walked, and he sent a wave of his own gratitude towards the magic.

_:Humans cannot keep us away from you, child:_

_:Obviously. I wasn’t worried:_

He cringed at the lie but relaxed after a prickle of amusement brushed against the back of his neck.

_:Of course:_

The presence faded but its reassurance didn’t, until a timid voice spoke up in front of him.

“D-Do you still d-d-duel?”  

He whipped his head up, alarmed, and sure enough Yachi was staring back with fearful eyes.

“I m-mean, I heard about what happened to your l-last team,” she stuttered out, clutching at her midsection, “and you were j-just emitting, and- oh, god, I’m so sorry! I won’t tell anyone you were emitting in the hallway, and oh my god, please don’t kill me, I promise I won’t say anything so please l-let me go!”

She was kneeling on the floor, now, an almost perfect imitation of the ancient bow of repentance except for her face that was still staring up at Tobio with stark terror.

He paused, more than a little lost, because when had murder entered the picture?

“I- I’m not going to kill you,” he assured her slowly, afraid to say the wrong thing. She was breathing hard, panting and shaking and he just really wasn’t sure how to deal with any of this.

“You r-really won’t?” she squeaked out. And then in a move even more confusing, she shot to her feet, bowing over and over so quickly that he was a little awed by her core strength.

She would’ve looked like she was doing some strange hallway exercise if she hadn’t also been crying out a string of “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I judged you without knowing you because of your scowl, I’m so sorry-”

He took a hesitant step closer, cautiously, and wished that he didn’t fail so miserably at human interaction. “It’s… ok?”

“Ah! It’s not ok,” Yachi wailed. “I’ve just never talked to a famous person before, and I’m sorry I thought you were angry and you wanted to kill me, and- and I’m _sorry_!”

Without waiting for a response Yachi turned and sprinted away, her face in her hands in a way that didn’t look safe for someone moving so quickly.

Tobio could only manage a startled “O-Oi…,” but she was long gone around a corner by the time he’d forced it out.

What.

What… the hell?

Whatever that had been probably didn’t excuse him from his appointment in the guidance office, though, so he continued the walk – without his scowl this time.

(Well, he tried to make it go away. His face just kind of naturally frowned, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.)

At least it was silent again except for the scuff of his shoes against stone and the beat of his own heart, so he started counting them as he walked. One hundred and eighty heartbeats to get to the grand staircase at the end of the main foyer. Two hundred and twenty to reach the heavy, carved oak doors that stood between him and his fate.

He stood still for a moment, studying the polished wooden sign above him that proclaimed “Guidance Wing” and wondering if he could fake sick and go to the nurse’s office instead. Except if he did that then they’d call his mother no matter what.

Tobio sighed, annoyed, and heaved open the left door.

Entering the guidance office was like stepping into a completely different building, one made out of neutral colors and all kinds of calm. It was more modern, more like the sleek buildings of New Tokyo, and he liked it far better than the rest of the school that felt like the set of a medieval V-screen drama.

(“It’s nostalgic, Tobio love,” his mother would say. “This kind of architecture is a nod to a past long lost.”

Creepy and dark, is what Tobio would say. But no one had asked.)

He figured the relaxing atmosphere of the guidance office was probably necessary, though: a buffer for all of the horror that waited inside. He still had nightmares about his first counseling session here. It had taken three months for him to be able to look Dr. Arita in the eye again.

Brushing the scarring memories aside, he squared his shoulders and approached an unfamiliar mousy-looking secretary with wide eyes and a kind smile. A beta, he realized after inhaling a very intentional cloud of pungent _something_. Mangoes and peaches? Or was that a hint of oranges? Either way the airborne chemicals hit his system like a truck, relaxing his shoulders and spreading a pleasant, tingly buzz through his mind. Gods though, he must really look nervous if she was scenting the air this thick.

…Then again, she could be trying to calm down Yachi. He could see the girl sitting at a corner desk now, peeking out from behind a large computer screen like it was a shield and breathing much easier. At least she’d made it back alive, clearly, which meant he wasn’t responsible for giving her a fatal heart attack in the middle of the freshman wing hallway.

“Oh, Tobio dear!” the secretary said, her eyes shining with recognition. “Doctor Arita wanted to see you right away. She’s waiting in her office. You can go ahead on in, sweetie. And congratulations!”

Tobio cocked his head but felt a lot better about whatever it was that he was about to face. No one sane said “congratulations” to a man on death row – which is what he’d have been if his mother was in there waiting for him.

Tobio nodded to the secretary and made his way over to the private office space labeled “Arita” in bold, elegant font, knocking firmly on the door twice.

“Come in,” an authoritative female voice called out. Tobio opened the door and saw a familiar middle-aged brunette reading through a stack of papers sprawled on top of her computer’s keyboard projection. She looked up and briefly fixed her ice-gray eyes to his before returning her focus to whatever she was reading.

“Ah, Tobio, excellent. Please have a seat.”

Tobio sat.

Dr. Arita shifted in her seat and continued to sift through the paperwork. “You’ve got another request,” she stated bluntly, and Tobio’s heart sank as frustration rose to take its place.

Godsdammit, he hadn’t even considered that as a reason for today’s summons. It was so close to the annual deadline at the end of January he’d almost forgotten about the whole stupid situation.

Tobio couldn’t stop his jaw from clenching, trying not to growl or snap at the doctor. It wasn’t her fault, it really wasn’t, but he hated that they had to go through this each time. Why couldn’t she just give out a blanket refusal in his name and avoid involving him at all?

At least this time he hadn’t been pulled out of Magical Applications class, though. _That_ request had been his quickest refusal yet.

“I don’t want a Playmate, Dr. Arita,” he grumbled. “I didn’t the other thirty-seven times, and I still don’t. I don’t know why people keep requesting me.”

The first week of January had been a hell he was entirely unprepared for. Suddenly he’d had no fewer than thirty-seven – _fucking thirty-seven_ – different Playmate requests, most of them from people he’d never spoken to in his life.

Actually, that probably explained the requests, now that he thought about it. People didn’t tend to stick around once they’d gotten to the talking phase of acquaintanceship.

Either way, with each request he’d been dragged down to this office to formally refuse in front of Dr. Arita, hoping people would eventually get the hint that Kageyama Tobio didn’t want to tie himself to another human for a day, let alone the entire year required of Playmates. And for the last two weeks, he’d thought the hint had been received.

“Your last name is Kageyama. You might as well get used to it each January from now on. Besides, we’ve still got two days left until the deadline for the omegas,” the doctor responded with little inflection, ignoring how he paled at the thought of this happening next year too. She said everything in the same tone, though, and Tobio honestly couldn’t tell if she was joking or offering him actual advice. Did she even know how to joke?

“Some people would kill to be in your position,” she continued, “to get so many requests. Most alphas and betas receive only one, others none…. It’s a normal and healthy thing, you know, having a Playmate. That you so adamantly refuse it – it’s interesting.”

Her expression didn’t change but Tobio saw a glint of intrigue in her eyes. It was a dangerous color on her.

“I won’t do it,” he snapped, wanting this conversation to end.

The woman in front of him merely hummed before continuing. “If that’s the case I’ll go ahead and start the refusal paperwork. But it’s a shame you won’t hear this one out. He was quite insistent. Said it had to be you.”

Yeah, he’d heard that one before. Thirty-seven times.

“He also mentioned something about dueling.”

It was enough to make Tobio perk up, until he realized what he’d done and slumped back into his seat. He huffed outwardly, trying to look uninterested, but it was too late to fully squash the tiniest seed of curiosity that planted itself in his gut.

Well. He supposed if he was stuck here until the paperwork was finished he might as well get some answers.

“Who is it?” the fifteen-year-old growled out, not fooling Arita at all.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she deadpanned, and gestured to a corner of the office behind Tobio.

“U-um…” a nervous voice squeaked out, and Tobio whipped around in his seat to stare at the third occupant of the room, an occupant he hadn’t realized was there at all.

And Tobio was definitely not prepared for who he saw.

In an old armchair in the corner sat a small-looking teen, made smaller by the awkward hunch of his shoulders and tight grip around both his stomach. His unbrushed, vibrantly orange hair stole the show, though, sticking up in all directions, and his wide amber eyes might’ve been appealing if they weren’t clouded with what looked like nerves. Holy shit though, Tobio hadn’t smelled him at all. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing about this situation.

It was that Tobio _knew_ him.

Well, sort of.

“Yeah, hi, um, I’m kind of, uh, the one who r-requested you…” the omega stuttered out anxiously with a half-hearted wave. The hesitance was so different from the first time they’d spoken, all confidence and bold declarations and fire, that Tobio found himself scowling in irritation.

“You!” he shouted, causing the omega to flinch. Which Tobio thought perfectly reasonable for someone he was definitely about to murder. “What the hell?”

“Uh, is it too late to say ‘please’?” the boy asked with a guilty grin, and Tobio had had enough. With the whole day, really.

He jolted from his chair and grabbed onto the omega’s arm. Ignoring a squawk of protest, he dragged the kid straight out of the office and into the lobby. It was only returning the favor, Tobio figured, since the shorter teen was he reason _he’d_ been dragged here in the first place.

Yachi wasn’t anywhere in sight, but the lobby secretary lit up like a beacon when he made awkward eye contact with her. If the omega in his tow thought she was going to be any help, he was dead wrong.

“Good luck, sweethearts!” she called out to them. “You two make such a cute couple!”

Tobio nearly gagged.

He only walked faster, tugging harder until the omega’s clumsy tripping threatened to slow them down. Finally they rounded a corner and came to an empty hallway, where Tobio roughly shoved the boy up against a wall.

“What. The fuck?” he pronounced clear and low, his frustration tinting each word with a guttural edge.

The redheaded omega cowered in front of him, raising his hands defensively and ducking his head for protection.

“Oh my god, please don’t kill me! I’m too young to die!”

Tobio growled and gripped the front of the shorter boy’s shirt. “What are you even doing here?” he demanded. The redhead’s legs were shaking and his eyes were squeezed shut hard and it was almost enough to make Tobio feel bad, until he remembered how much of an inconvenience this was.

“Please don’t strangle me! I’ll do whatever you want!” the omega squeaked again, and wow, that high pitched noise was really grating on Tobio’s nerves.

“What I _want_ is for you to answer the question, dumbass,” he responded, loosening his grip on the boy’s shirt. Anything to get the omega to stop making that godawful sound.

“I, uh, transferred here this semester. My family, we moved. Towns. To this town. Right. And my mom got a maintenance job here so I, uh, I go here too, now. I guess.”

Tobio scowled. “Are you even capable of making a complete sentence? Or did you get dumber since the last time I saw you?”

In the blink of an eye the omega’s jaw dropped, his posture switching from petrified to defiant.

“Well maybe I could if I wasn’t afraid for my freaking life, idiot!” he returned, sounding so much more like he had at the tournament eight months ago. Tobio bared his teeth in annoyance.

Which of course caused the omega to flinch backwards again, this time making karate motions with his hands as a form of – defense? Combat? Tobio honestly wasn’t sure.

“Um, I mean, Sir!” the omega cried out.

Tobio could only stare. Truly. He’d loved to be able to think, too, but the person in front of him defied comprehension.

“What even are you?” he asked. “Besides a complete dumbass.”

Karate fists turned into clenched ones. “You know what, you’re even more of an asshole than I remember! You wanna fight? Huh?”

Tobio regretted everything in his life that had led up to this situation. The best solution he could think of was to leave it, so without another word he spun on his heels and started heading towards the dormitories. Except, shit, he had to meet with Ms. Shinozaki. If he skipped his mother would be called for sure.

Dammit. He turned back towards the freshman wing.

“Oi, where are you going?” Dumbass called out from behind him, making Tobio speed up. “Seriously, wait!”

Tobio broke into a sprint, only to be jerked backwards when a pair of tiny hands gripped his forearm and yanked hard.

“I mean it, Kageyama, stop!” cried the teen before springing onto Tobio’s back and latching onto the alpha. Immediately Tobio bent and turned and tried to buck his assailant off but nothing worked – he’d wrapped his legs around Tobio’s waist and was sticking on like glue.

“Get _off_ me! You’re insane!”

A truly alarming level of insane, because Tobio was used to crazy fans. Ever since he’d passed his Class 2 magical exam a few years ago, classmates had started following him and trying to touch him and taking pictures of him to post on social media. He ignored it these days because he was used to it.

He was _not_ used to these people trying to _ride him like a bull_.

It had only been a few seconds, but he was already trying to remember the laws about unnecessary force and self-defense. Legally he probably couldn’t kill this guy, and that made everything worse.

“I can’t! I need you to be my Playmate!” the omega blurted, holding on tight.

Tobio pried at the limbs wrapped around him, no leeway in sight. Any other time and the omega’s display of strength might’ve intrigued him. At the moment it was pushing him closer and closer to homicide.

His mother knew some judges, he remembered. She could probably get him out of jail.

“It doesn’t have to be me! There’s hundreds of people at this school without Playmates. Go ask one of them!”

“It does have to be you! I need _you_ , Kageyama! I want to be a magic duelist!”

Right, Dr. Arita had said something about dueling. Dumbass had better be thanking the heavens, since that was probably the only thing he could’ve said with the tiniest bit of potential to get Tobio to listen.

His frantic movements slowed, and he straightened up.

“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked slowly, much to his own annoyance. His curiosity really needed to calm down and stop forcing things out of his mouth.

“I can’t be a duelist unless my Playmate lets me. I’m an omega now, remember?” the boy said, much calmer now that Tobio wasn’t trying to strangle or buck him off.

The alpha bit his tongue to resist the urge to point out that the other teen had always been an omega, technically. It just hadn’t really affected him before.

“If you get off me I’ll hear you out,” Tobio bargained after a moment, and the omega cheered enthusiastically before jumping off of his back.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he shouted.

Tobio stopped him with a hand over his mouth, squeezing tight in frustration. “Quiet down, dumbass. I said I’d hear you out, not agree,” he reminded. Something wet and slimy and warm tickled the palm of his hand, forcing him to retract it from the omega’s face as if he’d been burned.

“ _Hah_? Did you just lick me?”

“Obviously! You put your hand on my mouth first. Licking doesn’t count when people do that,” the redhead exclaimed, eyes wide and innocent as they bored into Tobio’s.

“It- it does too!” he spluttered automatically, not even really sure what the other had meant. Doesn’t count for _what_?

“That’s not what’s important here, Stupidyama!” Dumbass cried out in frustration. Or, what seemed like frustration. Tobio couldn’t even really follow anymore, since the back-and-forth of emotions this tiny person had shown him in the past two minutes alone was giving him whiplash.

“This is serious. I had to choose you, you see. I _have_ to be a duelist. Please, Kageyama.”

Tobio stared him down. “You keep saying that. Go find someone else who will let you duel. I’m going back to class,” he muttered. He’d take being made fun of in English over this conversation any day.

“Wait! I’m serious, wait! Do you know how rare that is? I’m an _omega_ , Kageyama. An omega! What alpha, heck, what beta is going to let me duel? Except for you!”

Well that was a dumb thought.

“There’s plenty of other omega duelists at school. All their Playmates let them do it,” he pointed out. Which was working out really well for Tobio in the moment, because now he could tell Dumbass to leave him alone. Case closed.

Except of course it wasn’t that easy.

“This is high school. No one cares about high school dueling. I’m going to go Pro. I’m going all the way to the Heaven Stage.”

Tobio couldn’t help but scoff, because if this guy was making it to the Heaven Stage then Tobio was the prime minister.

“You’re never going to make it to the Heaven Stage,” he informed Dumbass, because someone needed to tell him. Unless an insane amount of training had happened in past eight months. “What class are you now?”

Dumbass blanched, looking everywhere but him and mumbling under his breath.

“…Hah?” Tobio prompted.

“I- I said I’m still Class 4. Rank C.”

Anger, sharp and uncomfortable, shot straight through Tobio’s core.

“So you’ve made absolutely no improvement, then. You’ll never make it.”

And _that_ made Dumbass round on him just like he had last year, quick and sharp and taking a stance far more confident than he had any right to be.

“I _will_. I’m going to train even harder and I’m going to reach Class 1 Rank A and I’m _going to make it to the Heaven Stage_.”

There was a hint of something burning very close to the surface of the omega’s eyes, so similar to that day during the tournament, and Tobio forced himself to look away.

“You don’t need me for that,” he tried after a moment. Mostly because it wouldn’t happen.

“I do, though! You don’t understand! You-” he stopped in his tracks, huffing once before changing tactics. “Name three omega pro duelists. Right now.”

The Little Giant, Tobio almost snapped back, because that was the obvious one. But two others…

He put a hand to his chin, thinking hard. Like he was looking at a computer, a list of the top duelists popped up in his mind, and he mentally sifted through the rankings, thinking about their dynamics. No one besides the Little Giant in the top ten, then. No one in the top twenty, either, or forty, and Tobio was starting to get fuzzy on any pros lower than that.

“You can’t, can you?” Dumbass interrupted his mental search. “Because omegas don’t make it to the pros. Because none of their Playmates let them duel in college, so they don’t get the experience.”

Tobio tilted his head.

“But we’re not in college?”

“I know that, Stupidyama! You’ll have to be my Playmate in college too. But we should start now, because I need to start practicing now! I don’t want to risk a Playmate that won’t let me duel in high school either.”

And once again all brain activity seemed to stop inside Tobio’s mind as he tried and failed to process the insanity this kid had just spouted. Being around him was actually starting to seem kind of dangerous. Could a person lose IQ like that? Was that kind of thing contagious? Oikawa sometimes used to talk about ‘catching Tobio’s dumb,’ and Tsukishima had made a couple of similar comments recently, but he wasn’t sure that was the same thing.

Eventually he turned to the omega and gathered enough wits to force out “You want to be my Playmate until we’re _twenty-one?_ ”

No. Gods, no. That wasn’t going to happen. Five minutes with Dumbass was bad enough.

“Yes! Exactly. For real, what other person is gonna let me duel for the next six years straight? You won’t tell me no, though. I know it.”

Tobio paused, considering the boy’s words. He had a point, maybe, possibly.

Omegas dueling wasn’t illegal or anything, just… highly discouraged. Something about the population and fewer girls being born and babies and dangerous sports and blah blah blah, Tobio didn’t really understand it all. And he definitely didn’t care.

But a lot of other Playmates might. And an omega’s Playmate had complete control over their school activity because…

Well, actually, Tobio didn’t really understand that either. For some grown-up reason, he supposed.

Except-

“Didn’t that law get scrapped? The one where your Playmate gets to choose your club?” He was really sure he’d heard something about that, or something.

Dumbass scowled so fiercely at the floor that Tobio wondered if it might spontaneously combust.

“It did. Eight months ago, by a split Diet.”

Oh.

Ouch. It wouldn’t take effect for over a year, then. Or maybe it was three years? He tried to remember back to his government class in middle school, drawing nothing but blanks. Well, whatever. Either way the omega was kind of screwed and it definitely wasn’t Tobio’s problem.

But. There was still one part of this dumb plan that didn’t make any sense.

“What makes you think I’d let you duel if I was your Playmate?” he asked, because he honestly couldn’t figure out why _he_ was the lucky person being harassed, here.

It wasn’t like they’d spoken after Dumbass’s tearful vow of rivalry that Tobio hadn’t thought about once since that day. He didn’t think he’d ever see the sub-par duelist again. And until today, he hadn’t. Hadn’t given him a second thought. The omega didn’t know him at all, so why was he so confident that Tobio of all people would let him duel?

Dumbass didn’t keep him waiting. “I saw it in your eyes when we met,” he explained. “You love it more than anything else too, right? You know what it’s like, the rush of competing with your magic. Speaking to it and speaking through it. The feeling of victory, of getting to play on the field another day, it’s like flying. You would never take that chance away from someone, omega or not. I can _tell_.”

The alpha froze, heartrate jackhammering for a brief moment before it steadied again as the rest of his passionate spiel registered.

But ‘ _Speaking to it_ ,’ the omega had said.

_To_ it.

( _:Never tell the other humans that you can hear us. You should not be able to. Can you promise us this?:_ )

It had to- it had to just be an expression. The redhead’s language was gestural, Tobio remembered, not mental. There was no way he knew the truth about Tobio’s magic. About magic in general.

The alpha looked at the boy in front of him then, really _looked_ , for the first time since he’d seen him in the office. He was a little older now, a little less fragile-looking. Still shorter by a head but muscular, compact with a hint of ferocity as if he packed a big punch in a little body. And Tobio knew from experience that he did.

Dumbass just stood there with his stupid red hair and stupidly hopefully eyes, mixed with an air of seriousness that seemed oddly mature for what Tobio knew of him so far. And what Tobio knew was that he was loud and he was annoying and he was wasting Tobio’s precious time.

Worst of all: he was kind of right.

Tobio opened his mouth to argue but found that he simply couldn’t, and in that moment he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

The battle was the least of his worries, though, when the omega looked up to meet his eyes – in that moment Tobio lost the entire damn war. They weren’t even eyes anymore, they were actual fire that sent a shock of heat into Tobio’s gut even as the air around him felt suddenly chilled, making little goosebumps scramble up his arms. The hairs on the back of his neck raised, and Tobio couldn’t will them down if he tried. He couldn’t even move. They were back, in full force instead of the hint he’d seen earlier.

_Those eyes_.

(There was power there, deep and ferocious. And Tobio wanted- no, he _needed_ to control it.

But that would mean they’d have to be on the same team. So he shoved the urge aside, ignoring the sense of loss that came to replace it.)

“You told me that day that I needed to get stronger, that you’d compete with me then. So let me. Be my Playmate, and let me. I’ll become an opponent that you’ll want to face. And then I’ll take you down.”

Yeah, Tobio remembered saying that. He also remembered an unpresented boy with heaps of wasted potential. It pissed him off so much that he clenched his fists at the devastated, sobbing image of the boy in his mind.

_:But what if it doesn’t have to be wasted anymore?:_

Tobio jolted, almost missing the redhead’s next words.

“Please, Kageyama. You don’t even have to help me through my heats, obviously. And I’ll help you through ruts, if you want. I don’t care at all. Or we can just be Playmates on paper and only do the marking and primal state stuff. It doesn’t matter to me one bit, I just want to duel. I _have_ to duel. Please.”

It was easier to think now that those eyes had faded back into something normal. So Tobio listened to the speech with whitened knuckles and a grinding jaw and a poisonous glare at the ground in front of them. But in the end, he knew he couldn’t avoid it any longer.

He wanted to say “hell no,” he really did. He wanted to walk away and not deal with this shit anymore, to be free of responsibilities and focus on nothing more in life than his own magic.

Yet Dumbass’s words pierced straight through him, lodging into the part of his heart and soul that actually functioned like normal, that had passion for something. The part that needed dueling like his body needed oxygen.

Could he last six years without the rush of facing down opponents on the field? If he couldn’t duel, what would he do then? What would he be?

Nothing. He would be nothing.

(Tobio knew, because it had been months since he’d stood on the field alongside a team. And every last one of them had been hell.)

Tobio wasn’t kind, but he wasn’t cruel, either. He couldn’t curse someone to that emptiness, not even someone who meant absolutely nothing to him.

And even more than that, if he was willing to admit it to himself, his magic had kind of had a point. There was no reason this idiot needed to be skipping around with all that natural ability and nothing to show for it.

If he could make Dumbass actually train, somehow, actually become a worthy rival, then maybe…

(There was something indescribable there, some feeling created by that thought that he couldn’t quite reach. But it filled him with as much anticipation as stepping onto an open dueling field.

Something told him that if he kept this guy around, he’d be feeling it a lot more.)

“Fine,” he mumbled to the ground.

The omega perked up from where he had been sullenly glancing at his shoes, his entire demeanor brightening. “What was that?” he asked desperately.

“I said fine!” Tobio growled, whipping his head up to stare the other down. “We’ll try it for a year, and if you’re too annoying, you can find someone else next January.”

The redhead ignored the toxic gaze and lit up like a fucking sunrise. “R-really? Oh my god, Kageyama, thank you so much! Thank you, thank you! I swear I’ll do whatever you ask and I won’t be a bother and-”

Tobio grabbed his collar and pulled the ball of energy close. “You’re being a bother right now,” he growled. The omega didn’t seem to hear him as a string of “thank yous” and “you’re the bests” continued to flow out of his mouth like an endless waterfall.

With an eye roll and a sigh Tobio released the other teen, turning to make his way back to the guidance office. Arita was going to give him hell in her own special way, he was sure.

“Kageyama,” the other boy cried out. Tobio turned to look back to see that he hadn’t moved an inch. “I’ll meet you on the field.”

Tobio stared him down. “You won’t win,” he informed the redhead, as he had once before. “Not as you are.”

The teen simply grinned, and even from thirty feet away Tobio could see the fire in his eyes raging strong, back with a vengeance and infecting his entire aura. He was… electric.

“Maybe not now, but I’m going to train. Like I said before, I’m going to be the one to beat you.”

Tobio appraised the boy opposite him for a long time, considering his drive, considering his (very) raw talent, and considering his passion. Before he could stamp it down, a rare, genuine grin spread across his own face. Caused by this idiot, of all things, and that strange sense of anticipation. Like they were on the edge of something big.

Because it was a long shot in the omega’s current state, but if he trained hard, if someone could mold that untapped talent into something usable…

“I’ll meet you on the field,” Tobio finally returned.

Without waiting for a response (and ignoring the beaming sunlight that shone from the omega’s eyes in response to his words), he took off again towards the guidance office.

In the end Dr. Arita didn’t torture him too much, only offering a tiny, knowing smirk – the most emotion he’d ever seen from the woman – upon his announcement that he’d approve the request.

“What made you change your mind?” she asked.

“Dueling,” he answered. That seemed to be enough for her and she nodded smugly before slipping back into her perfect poker face and pushing a stack of papers towards him.

“Well, just sign here, write your Playmate’s name, and I’ll sign as witness since he already filed the request paperwork. After that it’s official. I have both sets of parents’ signatures from the waiver forms on file, the ones that allow you two the final say in Playmate decisions, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

Tobio nearly cringed, remembering the mandatory paperwork he’d had his parents fill out at the beginning of the year. He’d never actually thought he’d need it.

“I’ll need to see both of you separately to go over expectations, duties, heat and rut options, consent counseling, that sort of thing,” Arita continued, unconcerned for his inner turmoil, “but that can happen in early February. The most important thing is that you’re both marked within the next week, but you can request it take place at one of the specialized facilities. The office will send you both an email about scheduling a time. Also be aware that every primal state from here on out will be monitored at- ah, well, I’m sure you’re well informed about all that, of course.”

He nodded tersely. “Well informed” didn’t even begin to cover his level of informed-ness about that particular topic.

She glanced down at some sort of checklist. “After that I’ll meet with both of you once every three months to discuss your Playmateship until next January, when you can either choose to renew it, find a new partner, or go mateless. He, of course, is required to get a partner again at that time, either you or someone else.”

Tobio nodded again, in resignation this time, and scribbled in his own name. The next question was kind of a roadblock, though, and he paused, staring at the blank space under the words “Playmate’s Full Legal Name.” When he looked up helplessly at Dr. Arita, she arched a darkened brow.

“You don’t know his full name, do you?”

Tobio shook his head once. He’d been calling the dumbass “Dumbass” in his mind.

“Do you know one of them, at least?”

The shake of his head this time was quicker and probably a lot more pink.

It was amazing how a single bland look from the woman in front of him made him feel like a child again, being scolded for making a mess or talking to the servants or a million other little things he always did wrong. Even taller than the doctor by a head, he felt extremely small, just then.

The doctor seemed to notice then, since she cleared her throat and softened her expression back into its neutral state, shifting in her chair. Tobio did the same, relaxing again.

“Shouyou. His name is Hinata Shouyou.”

He rolled the sounds around in his mouth for it bit, liking the way they felt before he could stop himself. _Hinata Shouyou_.

Well. At least the pain in the ass he was going to be stuck with for the next twelve months had one likeable quality, even something as small as a name.

The corner of Tobio’s mouth tugged downwards just a little.

Hinata Shouyou.

The name of his newfound year-long prison. Hinata Shouyou.

Something about the teen made Tobio feel like nothing was ever going to be the same again, and he had no one to blame but himself.

 

***

 

Everything was dumbass Hinata’s fault.

It was _his_ fault Tobio had been forced to endure the most awkward counseling session of his life with Dr. Arita about what it meant to be a Playmate. About how he was supposed to practice taking on the emotional responsibilities of a real mate. (By the end of it he was pretty sure that he didn’t have several of the emotions she was asking for and that even his first session with her had been less painful than that.)

It was _his_ fault Tobio had gotten over ten calls from his mother, detailing the social and financial history of the Hinatas because she’d done more background checks and asking if he was really sure he wanted to waste time on someone like _that_. (Someone poor, she meant. Except everyone was poorer than she was, for the most part, so Tobio had never really understood her point.)

And now it was _his_ fault Tobio was sitting in a bathroom with _Magic Monthly_ four days after he’d signed his year away, trying to find something remotely appealing to jerk off to.

Marking, he’d been informed, couldn’t just happen whenever. First of all, it was better when the omega was comfortable and in territory they considered safe, so here he was, in the bathroom of Hinata’s dorm. Next, to his horror, Dr. Arita had explained to him in great detail all about the _coniunx_ glands, which had a bunch of hormones or something that only activated when bitten by someone who was extra turned on, causing a bonding mark that would last about a year and a month.

Which sounded easy in theory.

The problem, however, was that the glands normally sat safely hidden under the muscles that spanned from his neck to his shoulder. They would rise, Dr. Arita had said. They’d move right in between an opening in the muscle to a very bitable location under the skin… but only if a person had very recently gotten off.

Which meant, in short, that he and Hinata both needed to come before they could mark each other.

And he was trying, he really was. He’d holed up in the bathroom and allowed Hinata the privacy of his own bed to jack off. He’d found a pretty beta girl in the magazine, short and lean and lithe in the way he thought he probably liked. And he’d valiantly ignored the girl’s very familiar shade of red hair – very familiar and very much a coincidence, he told himself.

He and Hinata had given each other five minutes, because that’s all either of them wanted to spend with the knowledge of the other jerking off a mere door away. It had been three so far.

Tobio had managed to get hard, stroking up and down the shaft of his dick, adding gentle pressure to his balls and thumbing at the tip of the head in that way that was sure to make him finish. Except he couldn’t.

Because his mother apparently refused to stop calling him.

Every time he glanced down to his watch it was lit up green again, and swiping left every five seconds to reject the calls was starting to feel automatic. It was technically his free period, which meant his mother knew he wasn’t in class, and she’d be pissed if he didn’t answer soon.

Kageyama Himeko was the most terrifying alpha he’d ever seen when she was pissed.

By the fifteenth call he’d had enough, angrily wiping his hands on a towel and yanking his underwear back up. He couldn’t finish like this, let alone stay hard when his mom kept making her presence known.

Finally he felt presentable enough to press the green audio icon on the little screen of his cell watch. Not that she could see him on an audio call.

But still.

“ _Mom_ ,” he growled, trying to show his irritation but sounding far too breathy, “I’m _busy_ -”

“This is more important than your workout, dear,” she interrupted, and he wanted to die, just a little. “I see that you haven’t yet made an appointment at any of my facilities to mark this Hinata person. Have you changed your mind?”

“I’m not making any appointments,” Tobio grunted out, because the only thing weirder than the services his mother’s company provided would be _using_ them. He’d drop out of Magical Applications before he’d mark Hinata anywhere besides the privacy of his own dorm.

When his mother sighed happily instead of arguing, he was pretty sure she’d missed the point.

“Oh, baby, I’m so glad you came to your senses. I had a few of my lawyers take another look at the Playmate contract. They said there’s a good chance we can still get you out of it if-”

“I’m marking him right now, Mom! Here, not at a facility!”

A pause.

“R-Right now?”

“Not- not _right now_ , right now, but we were about to…” he trailed off, because he was pretty sure his mother now knew he’d been mid-masturbation. So if the earth could swallow him whole right then, that would be nice.

“Oh.”

Neither of them seemed to know what to say to that, and he was glad that she couldn’t see his horrified cringe or the layer of red that seemed to be painting itself over all his exposed skin in hot, itchy embarrassment.

“Why aren’t you marking him here?” his mom eventually asked, carefully neutral. “We have a very accommodating staff for this kind of thing. You’d barely have to touch him at all.”

“So you can’t meet him.” _And hide his body somewhere far away_ , he didn’t add.

She huffed, starting to sound annoyed. “Look, darling, I’m serious about the contract. This boy isn’t right for you, even if it’s just as a Playmate. I know your generation is different, but Playmates are supposed to be seen as practice for a real relationship. I just can’t say I approve of someone like him being with someone like you. You come from such different worlds, baby. He’s only using you.”

Tobio wanted to bang his head against the wall, except Hinata would definitely hear.

“Of course he’s using me!”

“ _Excuse me_? No one gets to _use_ -”

“He’s using me to duel, Mom,” he quickly cut her off. “Our agreement is that I’ll let him duel for his club activity.”

At least she seemed to calm down again. “…And what are you getting out of it?”

“Hah?”

“‘What,’ Tobio love, not ‘hah.’ And I’m asking what you’re getting out of it. Because from where I’m standing it sounds like a bad deal on your end. You’ll never be a great businessman if you make deals that don’t benefit you in some way.”

There was no way he could explain to her why he’d agreed. He couldn’t even explain it to himself, not really. But she definitely wouldn’t understand how dueling was something that Hinata just _needed_ , needed as much as he did.

Or how that made it Tobio’s job to let him do so… because it really wasn’t.

Gods, why had he agreed again?

(He wasn’t sure, but sometimes when pictured himself on the Heaven Stage, now, he saw a redhead in the distance standing opposite him.

But he definitely wouldn’t tell his mother _that_.)

“I’m going to be a duelist. Not a businessman,” he grumbled after a moment.

“You’ll have to retire from dueling eventually, dear. And speak up. Muttering is beneath you. Now, your benefit from the deal. Is it sex?”

“ _Hah_?”

“Because if it’s sex then-”

“I’m not using him for sex! I- I have to _go_!”

He ended the call, ripping off his stupid watch and wanting to scream before he remembered again that he was supposed to be jacking off and Hinata was just a wall away. He wasn’t sure what kind of impression of his sex life that would create, but it probably wasn’t normal.

Somehow, after what he was sure was much longer than his five minute limit, Tobio managed to focus on the pretty beta enough to get hard again and finally finish. (He’d never much cared about the hyper-virility of his dynamic before, but if it was going to let him do the deed and get out of this situation that much quicker, then he’d never been happier to be an alpha.)

Satisfied that he was cleaned up enough to not embarrass himself even more, he listened at the door for a few seconds to make sure Hinata was probably done, then slowly pushed it open.

“Were you on the phone with your _mom?”_ was the first thing Hinata said to him when he stepped into the bedroom.

The omega stood there looking a little flushed and breathing a little harder than normal, almost managing to make a somewhat attractive sight except for the shit-eating grin on his face. It sent a prickly rush of irritation through Tobio’s belly.

“Not _during_ , dumbass!” Tobio snapped. “She wouldn’t stop calling me!”

“Oh. Yeah, my mom does that a lot too. And she even works here. She called me eight times during biology yesterday because she saw a cute dog.”

Tobio nodded, appeased, because he got it – mothers were just like that, he guessed – and said nothing in return. What was he supposed to say to the person who’d just jerked off alone and knew that _he’d_ just jerked off alone and was about to bite him hard enough to scar for a whole year?

Tobio sure as hell didn’t know.

Luckily Dr. Arita saved them both with a sharp rap on the door.

“I take it you’re ready for me, boys?” she called from the hallway, and Hinata skipped over to let her in. She strolled inside with some sort of kit, whipping out a couple bottles, some cloth, and a few cotton balls.

“Now,” she said, pouring a smelly liquid on one of the cloths, “while it’s best to do this as naturally as possible, I’m also not a fan of causing excruciating pain. So we’re going to cheat a little and numb the area above your gland first.”

That sounded just fine to Tobio, and he titled his head to allow her access to the right side of his neck. He and Hinata had chosen the right side after a long argument that Tobio won, of course, playing the ‘I’m-doing-you-a-favor’ card; a victory he was still riding high nearly twenty minutes later.

She lathered his skin with the clear liquid before giving Hinata the same treatment, eventually pinching them both with her forefinger and thumb.

“Feel anything?”

Both teens shook their heads, so she nodded.

“And your canines descended ok? No pain?” Two nods this time, and she stepped back. “Perfect. Once you’re marked, your glands won’t rise and your canines won’t descend again until the mark wears off in a year or so, so don’t worry about that. It’s normal. Now, Hinata, you’re much shorter than Kageyama. Why don’t you come kneel on the bed?”

It was Tobio’s turn to wear a shit-eating grin, then, and a snicker almost escaped his throat at the sight of Hinata pouting on the bed. Dr. Arita wasn’t wrong, though; it would be much easier to bite him from that height. Tobio walked over to the other boy, suddenly nervous when they were chest to chest.

Hinata didn’t look like he was faring much better, starting to look a bit green.

“Er- you said this won’t hurt, right?” he asked, swaying a little and grabbing at his stomach.

Tobio jerked backwards. “Dumbass, if you’re going to puke, don’t do it on me!”

“I’m not gonna puke! That only happens before dueling matches!”

“ _Hah?”_

“Hinata!” Dr. Arita nearly snapped, and the omega immediately stilled. “You won’t feel anything besides a little pressure, ok? Promise. Kageyama, just do it, while he’s still somewhat calm.”

Tobio nodded, scooting forward again to grip Hinata’s shoulders and pull him close until there was no distance between them. He hadn’t really meant to get so into the omega’s space, but it felt natural like this. Instinctual. The moment his teeth hovered over Hinata’s right-side gland, it was like his body knew what to do.

He bit down, hard.

Blood burst into his mouth along with something else, hot and tangy, but he didn’t ease up. It was like he couldn’t, not until he’d breathed through his nose deeply a dozen times or so, and then he knew it was time to let go.

Immediately he drew back but didn’t release his grip on the omega’s arms; Hinata had slumped in his hold, shaking a little bit with his eyes squeezed shut, and Tobio’s heart clenched. Had he done it wrong? Had he fucked up literally the most natural thing in the world?

“There,” the doctor soothed, and it was weird to see her almost… gentle. “That wasn’t bad, was it?

“Mhmm,” Hinata hummed, shaking his head no. It took a little more coaxing from the doctor, but she finally got him to stop trembling so bad. He peeked one eye open, apparently deciding it was safe for the other one to follow suit, then slowly smiled.

“That wasn’t bad at all!”

The words made Tobio itch to smack him, a little, for scaring the shit out of him, but he settled for a growl.

“Just hurry up,” he bit out.

“Don’t rush me, Stupidyama!” Hinata cried, putting himself in position. It was his turn to grip Tobio, leaning in close. Tobio could feel the omega’s warm breath against his skin, making him shiver once, twice.

Without warning the omega’s teeth clamped down and it was just like Dr. Arita had said. A slight pressure and nothing else. After twenty seconds or so Hinata let up, backing away with blood smeared across his mouth and nose.

“Pfft, you look like a murderer with all that blood,” he snickered, causing Tobio to scowl.

“Oi, if anyone looks like a murderer it’s you!”

“Do not.”

“Do too!”

“ _Boys_ ,” the doctor cut in. They turned to look at her, and she handed them both warm washcloths. “Clean yourselves up, please."

They wiped at their faces while Dr. Arita dabbed something on the wounds. Tobio stared at the red, swollen mark on Hinata’s skin that surely mirrored his own, memorizing its shape out of morbid curiosity before it would be covered. The punctures had stopped bleeding profusely, but that just meant he could see the tissue and blood under the torn skin. It looked like the kind of cut that should send Hinata to the ground in pain, but he stood there happily, chatting away with the slightly amused alpha as she dressed the wound.

Even if Hinata’s mark looked ragged and painful Tobio knew it would scar neat, four puncture wounds that would stick around for the next year and a light set of teeth indentations around them that wouldn’t.

Gods, he hadn’t thought he’d ever see one of these so new and fresh in person. At least not until he was over thirty and a dueling world champion who had time to think about dumb things like mates.

He had not been prepared for Hinata Shouyou.

(Something fluttered inside his stomach, and he chalked it up to latent nerves. Kind of like after he’d finished a dueling match, when reality suddenly hit.

It was pleasant and horrible all at the same time.)

“That’s it?” Hinata asked once they were both sporting soft white bandages, sounding a little put-off. “But I thought it would be more… guwahh!”

Confused, Tobio turned to him. _Guwahh_? Was that one of his magic words? Except no, his language was gestural. Still.

Hinata was probably just a dumbass.

Dr. Arita stopped straightening up her medical kit to raise a fine brow at the omega.

“It’s a biological connection created by enzymes and hormones, not something mystical,” she informed him drily. “You won’t start feeling each other’s emotions or hearing the other’s thoughts any time soon. Never trust what you see on romantic V-screen dramas.”

With a growing flush, Hinata began to wave his hands back and forth in vigorous denial.

“I don’t- _I_ don’t watch them. My mom and my sister put them on all the time, though. We just got our first V-screen so Mom says she’s making up for lost time.”

Maybe it would’ve been believable, except for the alarming shade of red that now dominated Hinata’s head. His face finally matched his hair.

“Right,” Dr. Arita replied. “Anyway, you’re both free to resume normal activities. Which means that no, you don’t get out of classes today.”

Before she could even blink she had two sets of eyes staring at her, horrified.

“ _Hah_?” they both cried in tandem, Hinata tacking on “We don’t?”

“No. So I hope you didn’t choose today for your marking in order to skip anything important.”

Both Playmates jerked, looking guiltily at anything except the doctor, and she sighed. “It’s late enough that I can give you a pass for second period and second period only. But that’s it. Don’t forget to schedule your next meeting with me before next Goldenday. And don’t forget to read the pamphlets I emailed you either.”

“Thank you!” they both yelped with a sharp bow, straightening up when they heard the door click shut.

And just like that, their marking was over.

Kageyama Tobio was no longer a free man. He was a Playmate.

…Everything was dumbass Hinata’s fault.

*

It had been three days and the world continued to make it known that it hated Tobio.

“Tsukishima and Kageyama,” Ms. Shinozaki called out in English class, sealing their fates, “I want you two to work together on a phonetic and phonological comparison of Pre-C English, Pre-C Japanese, and New Japanese. I really look forward to seeing what you two can come up with.”

Tobio nearly groaned, dropping his head to his desk.

_This_ was probably Hinata’s fault too. Somehow.

The only good part about this situation was that Tsukishima didn’t look happy, either, sneering at the assignment sheet like he’d tasted something extra sour.

Their teacher clapped her hands to signal the end of the period.

“Alright, everyone. If you’ve looked at the assignment sheet, you’ve noticed that I want some tentative sources and a breakdown of each person’s responsibilities by tomorrow. Which, yes, does mean that you need to meet with your partner today. If you have any questions, please see me after class. You’re all dismissed, and good luck!”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and motioned for Tobio to follow him out the door. He would’ve said no, until the blonde sighed and added “It’s your lunch period, right? Let’s just do it now and get this over with.”

Fair. Neither of them wanted to be near the other longer than they had to, and there was no way Tobio was going to deal with Tsukishima on an empty stomach. Whatever numbing stuff Dr. Arita had used on his neck was starting to wear off, except he’d left his painkillers in his room, and it was making this already awful day even worse.

At least the freshman cafeteria wasn’t too full when they got there, plus Tobio was able to grab two of his favorite milk bottles.

They worked in silence at an empty lunch table, mostly, occasionally grunting out a few words when they found a usable source, but it wasn’t nearly as awful as Tobio had been expecting. Until they finished their homework Tsukishima gave the juncture of his shoulder and neck a skeptical glance, raising his stupid blonde brows.

“You have a Playmate?”

Tobio bristled. “What of it?”

“Nothing. I just find it hard to believe that anyone who’s had an actual conversation with you would still agree to be stuck with you for an entire year. Tell me, how did you manage that?"

“How’d you get someone to tie themselves to _you_?” he shot back. He’d seen the scar near Tsukishima’s neck. And even if it’d been annoying, Tobio was still made thirty-seven offers. How many could an asshole like this guy have gotten?

Tsukishima stared at him with a squint.

“It’s the law?” he said slowly, like he was trying very hard to make Tobio understand.

Tobio did not understand. “But you’re an alpha?”

“Congratulations, you’re half right. I’m a/o. My endocrine system produces single-dynamic levels of both alphagen and omegagen at different points in time, so every month or so I switch back-”

“I know what a/o means!” he snapped, cutting the blonde’s condescending explanation off.

And he did, kind of. Or, well, he’d heard the term in his biology class, maybe, along with some of those other words the blonde had just said. Either way he knew he was _supposed_ to know what a/o was, and Tsukishima was explaining it because he was a dick.

“Oh? You do? Maybe there’s hope for you after all.”

Tobio scowled.

“Kageyama!” a pleased shout came from across the cafeteria, so loud over the normal din that half the room turned to look toward the door.

Under the doorframe, unaware of what a general nuisance to society he was, stood one Hinata Shouyou. He was waving with big, sweeping motions with his arms and rocking back and forth a little, almost like he wanted to start jumping but was actually showing the tiniest bit of situational awareness for once.

Gods, how did he keep _finding him_? Tobio had specifically nabbed a schedule from the redhead to make sure theirs were sufficiently different. They had the same free period, but that was it.

A bit of blonde and two wide, terrified brown eyes poked out from behind Hinata’s shoulder – which was a little bit funny because Yachi was probably the only person their age that Hinata’s short frame could actually hide. Behind them both stood a much taller brunette who Tobio recognized from Biology II. Yamazaki? Yamamoto? Something like that. Whoever he was, he always seemed to be standing in Tsukishima’s shadow. Literally. Tobio hadn’t even been sure he existed as his own person before.

“Kageyama, Kageyama!” Hinata continued to sing out, prancing over to them like some elementary school girl with the other freshmen lagging behind.

“Quiet down, dumbass,” Tobio hissed, overly aware of at least fifty pairs of eyes trained directly on them. Just because he was used to attention didn’t mean he liked it. Well, when he was dueling, maybe. Not when he was just sitting there.

“You know Hinata?” asked Tsukishima, something very dry and unimpressed in his tone.

“ _You_ know Hinata?” he countered. On second thought though, it really wasn’t surprising. Every time he saw his Playmate around school the dumbass seemed to be surrounded by people, laughing and smiling and greeting them by name. There didn’t seem to be a single person Hinata wasn’t friends with.

“Unfortunately. I was ordered to show him around school a few weeks ago.” Tsukishima’s irritated face said even more than his bitter tone. Enough to make Tobio huff out a near-laugh, at least, one of those small puffs of air through his nose.

…Make that one person Hinata wasn’t friends with.

To be fair, though, was Tsukishima friends with anyone?

Hinata yanked out the chair next to his Playmate, plopping down without hesitation. And when he whipped out a beat-up lunch tin and dropped a water bottle onto the table, Tobio nearly growled. He’d been hoping this would be quick. Hinata wasn’t even supposed to share this lunch period. Tobio had made _sure_.

“We got let out from history late," the redhead whined before perking up. "But then I ran into Yachi and Yamaguchi in the hallway, so everything worked out!" He reached up to scratch the white bandage next to his neck almost like an afterthought, picking up his sandwich instead when he seemed to realize what he was doing.

If his mark had started bothering him like Tobio’s had, though, he wasn’t letting it show. The redhead was as bubbly as ever – at least until he shot the omega – alpha? – across from him a healthy squint.

“Tsukishima,” Hinata greeted in a mutter, like it pained him to say it.

“Shrimp,” smirked Tsukishima right back.

“Tsukki!” the brunette - Yamaguchi, apparently - chirped happily before Hinata could retort, coming to take a seat beside him as he and Yachi finally reached the table. He nodded shyly at Tobio before angling his chair so that he wouldn’t make eye contact with the alpha again. Tobio was used to that, too.

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima nodded, to Tobio’s surprise, even more so when he added “Yachi.”

It was the most respect he’d seen the blonde treat anyone with. Gods, maybe he did have friends.

Yachi sat down next to Yamaguchi, who started blushing furiously for reasons Tobio wasn’t even going to begin to guess, and began unpacking her own lunch: some meat and rice with a cup of hot tea. It was the first time she’d gotten so close to Tobio, and a curious scenting of the air told him that she was a beta.

(Not that it really mattered. Not that he spared her any thoughts in the end at all, actually, except for relief that she’d calmed down enough to be in his presence without stuttering.

She’d stopped running away from him every time he saw her in class or the hallways, too, and he was glad. Her terrified retreats had started some pretty wild rumors.)

“Why are you here?” Tsukishima asked the (other?) omega, who didn’t seem to notice the sneer in his tone.

“Oh, they changed my math class so I could get extra help. Yachi was assigned to be my tutor, so she’s gonna eat lunch with us! Hope you don’t mind!”

“Us?” Tobio parroted.

“It’s only January and you already need a tutor?” Tsukishima snickered. Hinata ignored him but Yachi nodded once, slowly.

“Yes… yes he does,” she murmured to no one in particular, her eyes so haunted that Tsukishima actually reared back when he saw them and dropped the subject.

Idly, Tobio wondered if that meant Hinata’s math grade was even worse than his own. Would Yachi tell him if he asked?

Probably not.

“I hope that’s fine though!” Yachi cried suddenly. “Eating with you guys, I mean. Because I know you didn’t invite me and you usually eat with Yamaguchi but Hinata kind of dragged me here and he’s a lot stronger than he looks and I-”

“Yachi,” Tsukishima cut her off, and she quieted. “It’s fine. You’re my Playmate. I think I can handle a meal with you.”

And Tobio barely had time to process _that_ crazy revelation before Hinata was waving his hand in front of the alpha’s face.

“Oi, Kageyama,” Hinata started, continuing on anyway when Tobio didn’t acknowledge him. “Dr. Arita wants to meet us sometime soon for our first pair session, or something. I kind of forgot what she said because she was so scary, all _grrr_ with her scary alpha eyes, but I think she said it’s important and that we need to choose a time. Yachi can schedule it for us if you tell her when you’re free, though!”

There was a beat of silence, and then Tsukishima’s draw dropped towards the floor.

“ _Him?_ This guy’s your Playmate? _Hinata_?” the alpha – omega? – faltered, and it was almost worth all the trouble of dealing with Hinata to see the look on the blonde’s face.

…Almost.

Except Tsukishima ruined it by opening his stupid mouth and continuing. “What could you have possibly threatened him with to get him to agree to _that_?”

“ _I_ threatened _him_?” Tobio forced out, astonished, because what the fuck? Tobio hadn’t been the aggressor in that scenario no matter how it was looked at.

If anyone was the victim here it was Tobio himself.

“Yeah I’m his Playmate. You got a problem with that, huh?” demanded Hinata, and it might’ve sounded intimidating, maybe, if he wasn’t like five-foot-three and half hiding behind Tobio, clutching tight onto his shoulders.

Tsukishima recovered quickly, giving Hinata a bored once-over. “Believe it or not, what you and the king do in your spare time means nothing to me at all, actually.”

Tobio’s fist hit the table with a thud, startling Yachi so badly that she knocked over her tea and nearly fell out of her chair. Yamaguchi jumped up, gathering their napkins to stop the spill before it dripped onto anyone’s lap.

“ _Don’t call me that,”_ Tobio growled, ignoring the chaos around him. Tsukishima only smirked, sipping his mug like he didn’t have a care in the world.

His smirk turned into an outright grin when Hinata tilted his head and asked “King?”

“It’s what people call your Playmate when he duels. The King of the Field, looking down on all us lowly commoners.”

His tone was biting and cruel but Hinata didn’t seem to notice, breaking out into an expression full of excitement and envy both, somehow.

“Uwaah! That’s so cool!”

Tsukishima scoffed. “I’m sure someone as simple as you would think so.”

“ _Oi!_ ”

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi chided, far too soft to have any impact, but it made the blonde snarl at his friend anyway. And _that_ caused Yamaguchi to let out a high-pitched “ _eep_ ” as he ducked his head in submission.

“S-So!” Yachi nearly yelped, drawing the table’s eyes to hers. “Um, speaking of dueling, have you found a team yet, Yamaguchi? Tsukishima?”

“Team?” Hinata perked up.

“Ah, we’re looking to join a dueling team,” Yamaguchi explained. “The paleontology club lost status in December since we were the only two members, so we decided to try dueling. We dueled in middle school too, for whatever that’s worth,” he finished with a chuckle.

“Hey, Yachi’s looking for a team, too!” Hinata exclaimed, causing the girl to squeak. “She told me yesterday!”

Yamaguchi turned to her, a strange sort of hopefulness in his eyes. “Really?”

“Y-Yes, but. Um. I haven’t found one to approach yet. I was going to join one of the academic clubs until then.”

A silence that wasn’t quite uncomfortable fell over the table, broken when Hinata hummed suddenly.

“Wait, so all of us duel, but none of us have a quorum?” Hinata looked around the table, then, jumping to his feet when Yamaguchi and Yachi hesitantly nodded. His chair was knocked backwards, forgotten on the ground.

“Great! There’s two of us,” he exclaimed, pointing at himself and Tobio, “and three of you! That’s five! That’s a dueling quorum!”

Hinata was smiling brilliantly now, hopping up and down like an overactive child. Which he kind of was, Tobio supposed.

But he was doing it again, the thing with the eyes. The thing Tobio had seen in the hallway outside the guidance wing. The burning thing that Tobio _really_ didn’t like. It was dangerous.

Not nearly as bad as the redhead’s next words, though.

“So let’s make one!”

Tobio blanched, as did the others.

…What?

“Let’s make our own team!”

 

… _What?_

***


	3. The Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [UPDATE: So I'm pretty sure that every time I talk about my updating schedule here I shoot myself in the foot. Guess who just got assigned ambassador duty for the workplace this week? Yepppp, this person right here. Which effectively kills the editing/writing time I thought I could squeeze in this week - gotta gives tours and pick people up from the airport instead. Yay. Which means disregard the update schedule below and expect Saturday the 9th at the soonest, due to even more work issues. Maybe if I stop mentioning my schedule, life will stop laughing at me and changing it???]
> 
> Welcome to sleep-deprived exposition and dialogue, the chapter. Not as fun/funny, but important for the story. Also important: I decided to split this one in two, since it was becoming a real monster. I repeat: this is part 1 of 2. If it seems like this chapter ends kind of abruptly and not much happens, I agree?? But no one wants to read a 19k chapter, I think. So the other part should come tomorrow (and be more interesting, I think), but if not, I'll post in the next few days when I can get to editing. On the off chance even more life stuff creeps up on me (see end notes: my Tale of Woe), it'll come next Saturday. But I'm really hoping to get it done before then.
> 
> Anyway, so I have a huge apology to make for being late, because the universe really did not want this chapter to come out on time. My tale of woe explaining why I'm so ridiculously late, as promised, will be in the end notes, if you care.
> 
> Thanks a million for supporting this fic in any way you might have, and I hope you’ll forgive me for being so off schedule when I said I would stick to it. On that note, until my upcoming projects are finished (see end notes: my Tale of Woe), I won’t have much time, and sadly there's just nothing I can do about it short of becoming a time traveler. Or time freezer. That would actually be great. Someone please tell me how to make this happen.
> 
> Also, of course, I have no beta (we die like men) and no time to sleep and I’m actually impressed I even finished this when I did, so I’m sure it will be riddled with errors and dumb mistakes. Feel free to point them out.

***

_August 28 th, 532 P.C._ – _the Present_

 

 

“I can’t believe they kicked us off the field!” cried Shouyou for the fifth time since they’d sat down, managing to keep the wobble out of his voice, somehow.

He was straddling his Playmate on a café patio recliner, furiously nuzzling into Tobio’s scent gland to try and calm his nervous stomach. At least a little. Anything would help at this point, because today was actually the worst and everything about it was terrible. And it wasn’t even six in the morning yet.

Tobio, for his part, was relaxing underneath him, letting Shouyou take what he needed and lazily running his fingers through the omega’s hair. And granted, it felt _really_ nice, and Tobio’s bonding mark smelled _really_ nice, and most days Shouyou would already be boneless and calm in Tobio’s arms.

This was not most days. This was a complete disaster of a day. No – it was more than that. Like, the second Cataclysm or something, because they’d been run off the dueling field they’d woken up early just to try and claim.

Not just that one, either.

Hanadai had six fields and they’d been marched off every single one by some extra shouty field crew members over the past three days. Which wouldn’t have been a problem except for the rule banning magical emittance outside of special areas without a permit. It was a dumb law, Shouyou thought. A very dumb law.

At this point they’d lost the last few days to classes and Shouyou’s job, and the campus emittance rooms always seemed to be booked so they’d had nowhere to practice even when they _did_ have time, and their match was today – _today_ – to see if they were going to be accepted to Karasuno.

And Shouyou needed to get accepted onto Karasuno. He _needed_ it, or else he might die.

(To Shouyou, dueling was a gut-twisting, aching kind of need even more important than breathing, because people didn’t think about breathing until they couldn’t do it anymore. But Shouyou thought about dueling _all the time_.

It was there in every beat of his pulse, every movement, every cell in his body commanding him to push his magic further, to reach for the top until there was nowhere higher to go.

And to Shouyou, dueling started with Karasuno.

It always had.)

Tobio closed his eyes and grunted, the same soft sound of annoyance he’d given Shouyou the other four times he’d complained.

“Probably because you keep uprooting trees, dumbass. I told you to stop tearing up the ground. The field crews will get pissed.”

“It’s not the trees,” he muttered into his Playmate’s neck.

It really might’ve been the trees.

With a frantic, lung-emptying sigh, Shouyou dropped his head on the alpha’s shoulder. His tummy was doing its stress-rumble thing again, which meant it was time for him to look around for any signs of a restroom. Tobio must’ve heard it – along with everyone else on campus, probably, because his stupid stomach was louder than Natsu during a tantrum – since he huffed and started rocking them side to side. The calming motion hit something instinctual, just a little bit primal, and Shouyou could feel the tension in his neck starting to let up as he glanced around.

It was still mostly dark, just barely light enough to make out the colors of the flowers all around the patio. The space was pretty in the daylight, just like the rest of campus, all smooth stone and concrete covered in loads of plants. (Tobio had seemed pretty unimpressed by the whole thing when they’d first toured the school, but Shouyou loved it. The entire university was like the garden his mom always wished they could have had.)

It was pretty but it was weirdly empty, especially for a place that sold coffee. The only other signs of life were a couple boys hiding very badly behind a column and pointing at Tobio, plus a few birds hopping around that kind of reminded him of Natsu.

But it was still early, Shouyou figured, plus tryouts would be starting up again soon. Everyone had probably gone to watch.

Which reminded him…

“So what do we do now?” he said as he shifted his weight back onto Tobio’s hips, bouncing a little to try and get the alpha to open his eyes. This was _serious_. “About dueling. Daichi told us to meet him on the field at six-thirty, and we haven’t had anywhere we can practice combo moves since Sunday!”

And then he regretted rousing the alpha when Tobio actually looked him dead in the eye and said “We don’t need combo moves. I’m there, so we’ll win.”

“Oi! That’s not how that works, Stupidyama!”

“Fine. We can do more stamina training,” Tobio suggested, a stupid glint in his eyes. Much like that law banning magic, Shouyou’s Playmate was also stupid.

“We don’t have time to screw! We need to practice! Don’t you want to win?”

Tobio growled, sitting up. The weight shift nearly sent Shouyou sprawling backwards, but two solid hands gripped him around his shoulders, keeping him upright. Tobio’s thumbs began to absently trail across Shouyou’s arms, leaving two trails of pleasant, calming warmth – it was nice and confusing all at once, his body telling him to relax while his mind screamed to keep arguing.

His stomach ignored them both and started to rumble again.

“Of course I want to win, dumbass. And we’re going to. But I can’t just make a field appear, and I can’t have them open the emittance rooms early like at Aoyama.”

“Did you try offering them money?”

“I offered a whole month’s allowance. It’s all I can give without my mom getting suspicious.”

“And they said _no_?” That was probably more cash than Shouyou would see from his part-time job in the next four months combined.

Tobio shrugged, a move that looked odd with his scowl back full force.

Well, crap. Usually bribery worked. Heck, usually Tobio just asking for stuff worked. He got free crap all the time, which was super annoying because it wasn’t like he needed it. He was the son of one of the richest people in the modern world.

_Shouyou_ should be getting free stuff for putting up with Tobio. But people were blinded by the alpha’s stupid blue eyes and his stupidly sharp jaw and his stupid little pout-frown, he guessed. And his stupidly impressive magical skills too. It wasn’t _fair_.

Tobio shook him a little bit to get his attention, soft and annoying all the same.

“The gym isn’t open yet, the magic center in town is closed this week for construction, and the match is in forty minutes, so we can’t catch the maglev to New Tokyo. We can either sit here and waste time or go back to the dorm and fuck.”

Shouyou could’ve screamed in frustration. Which would’ve made for some good angry sex later, except dueling was on the line, here. Dueling beat sex every time. (Even if they had some _really_ good sex. But that just showed how incredible magic was.)

“Stop being so vulgar,” he settled on grumbling. “And for real, we have to spend every second finding somewhere we can emit! We can’t screw before the match!”

Tobio’s scowl softened back into a confused frown. “But we’ve already done it once this morning.”

“Everyone knows morning sex doesn’t count if you haven’t left the bed yet!”

Footsteps abruptly paused in front of them, and the two looked over to see Suga standing in the light of the sunrise with some impressively raised eyebrows.

“Am I… interrupting something?” he asked.

Shouyou scrambled off Tobio’s lap and over to his upperclassman.

“Sugaaaa,” he wailed, leaning into the older omega’s chest. “We got kicked off every dueling field!”

Suga, probably, would be sympathetic. Shouyou hadn’t known the guy very long, but they’d talked for a while on Moonday after Daichi finished yelling at him and Tobio for trying to sneak onto Karasuno’s field. (And for starting magical fires on campus, too, but that had been all Tobio’s fault, so Shouyou was ignoring that one.)

Before the conversation was over Shouyou had been hugged twice and had his neck nuzzled once – which had actually been really helpful in calming his nerves, because Daichi was _scary_ – so he figured Suga was just one of those comforting types. Like Shouyou’s own mom. The older omega had a familiar feel to him, soft and kind and friendly, and it made Shouyou want to spill all of his secrets and ask for a pat on the head all at once. If anyone would give him sympathy it would be Suga, he was sure.

Except the only thing Suga was giving him just then was an odd look.

“Well of course you did. Hanadai only has six fields for over twenty teams. You have to request practice times on them. This week and last are for tryouts, so all the time slots have been booked solid for months now.”

…Oh.

“I knew it wasn’t the trees,” Shouyou muttered, sticking his tongue out at Tobio.

Tobio frowned just a bit harder than his normal frowny face. “How were we supposed to practice before our match? Daichi banned us from dueling with the team until we’ve been admitted.”

Shouyou ignored his Playmate’s overconfidence – mostly because he’d had all of high school to learn that yes, this guy was actually for real – but snickered when Suga raised both brows and mouthed a surprised “ _until_?”

But the vice-captain recovered quickly with a shake of his head, grinning and motioning for them to follow.

“Come on. I have someplace we can go. Tanaka’s going to meet us there.”

_That_ got Shouyou’s interest. “Tanaka? The other guy on our team? He’s actually gonna practice with us? Alright!” he cheered.

If they couldn’t emit then strategizing with their other teammate was the next best thing, and finally, _finally_ they were getting somewhere. The excitement that swooped in to replace his stress was almost too much – he started to jump up and down until Tobio grabbed his arm to jerk him towards wherever Suga was leading. It took some quick footwork but he caught himself before falling face-first on the cobblestones, barely. And nope, he was _not_ letting that slide.

With a sly grin, he yanked his arm free and hopped onto Tobio’s back instead, tightly latching his legs around the alpha’s middle and throwing his arms around his neck.

“Oi, get off, dumbass Hinata!” was the response he got, followed by a pretty lame attempt to throw him off, if he did say so himself.

“You said you wanted stamina training, right? So carry me!” he said into the back of Tobio’s neck as obnoxiously as he could.

He didn’t have to see his Playmate to know the alpha was scowling hard again, but he huffed and hitched Shouyou up securely in his hold anyway. Shouyou’s grin melted into a happy sigh, and he settled in and let the warmth from Tobio’s body spread all through his own again.

Touching Tobio was always the best part of his day, besides using magic.

(They’d both accepted that part of their instincts long ago – the constant itch to be near, the pull to come closer until they were practically sharing the same space.

It was always there, buzzing just a bit under Shouyou’s skin in a really pleasant way, turning even more pleasant when the two of them were finally able to touch.)

“Daichi won’t be mad?” Tobio asked Suga after a minute or two of walking, weirdly hesitant. “About practicing with you or Tanaka?”

An excellent question, since just thinking about making Daichi angry sent freezing little shivers down Shouyou’s back.

“He can’t get mad about what he doesn’t know!” responded Suga cheerfully. The pretty omega spun around mid-step, giving them one of the biggest winks Shouyou had ever seen. “But even if he finds out, I’m sure I can think of something to persuade him to let it go.”

Shouyou perked up, impressed.

“Ooh, you must be a great convincer! You really are just like my mom!” he cried out, not expecting Suga to stumble over nothing before catching himself.

“I’m sorry?”

“Because she’s really good at talking people into things, you see!” Shouyou explained, waving around his hands to help his point and forcing Tobio to adjust their balance. “If my sister was crying or if our old landlord got upset, she would just start talking and talking until she’d calmed them down and gotten her way! It was amazing! You must be just like her if you can talk Daichi down from being mad!” 

Suga looked at him for a long time, blinking slowly.

“That’s not what I mea- ah, you know what, never mind. Oh, good, he’s there. Tanaka!” he called out to the bald-headed alpha approaching them at the start of a tree line.

Shouyou hopped off Tobio’s back, checking out the area around them with a sinking feeling. This part of campus he knew as well as every line and curve tracing the inside of Tobio’s palms, even if he’d only been here three times. There was no way he’d forget the shape of the tree line in front of him, or the color of the grass in the early sunlight, or even the white caps of the mountains beyond them in the distance.

He’d memorized it all since the first time he’d seen it: the entrance to Karasuno’s practice field.

…A place they most definitely weren’t allowed to be, yet.

Not when it didn’t officially open for another half hour, for one, but more importantly, not since Daichi had banned them until their match.

(Getting yelled at by Daichi again was in the bottom five of things he wanted to do again, ever.)

Shouyou hoped they hadn’t come out here for nothing, though, because he really needed to find a place to use his magic soon. He could feel his fingers and the muscles in his back and hips twitching, telling him to form his words.

He _needed_ to duel.

“Suga!” Tanaka called back, jogging over to them. “Saeko got Uchizawa to clear the space half an hour early. I hope it’s worth it. You wouldn’t believe how much groveling that crazy witch made me do.”

“It’ll be worth it when you can say you beat Daichi in a match, won’t it?”

Tanaka seemed to like that, puffing his chest out and crossing his arms. “I’ll get to bury the captain and that smug glasses kid in one go. Not a bad deal, huh?”

_Whoa_. Something seemed to change in Tanaka, then, a power that Shouyou hadn’t noticed before. It was in the muscles that stood out on his arms and the confidence in his solid stance, something that said he was looking for a fight and knew he wouldn’t lose.

An envious warmth crept across Shouyou’s cheeks, because he wanted to look like that, someday.

From the corner of his eye he could see Tobio glancing between them both, a strange look on his face, and he wondered if he was jealous too. Not that the alpha needed to be. Tobio was the greatest duelist their age that Shouyou knew.

“Oi, you two punks!” Tanaka suddenly shouted, and the omega jerked to attention.

Suga sighed. “Tanaka.”

“ _Tch_. You two, follow-”

“Wait,” Tobio cut him off, “we can have time on the field? Even though it’s not open yet?”

“Really?” Shouyou tacked on, starting to get excited.

“Yeah, like I said, you two can fo-”

“To the middle?” Shouyou said, turning to his Playmate with a grin. Tobio matched it easily.

“Of course,” he nodded.

“ _Oi!_ You brats are ruining my reveal!”

Shouyou barely heard him by the time he’d finished his sentence – the omega was already sprinting away towards the center of the field, neck-and-neck with his Playmate who _he was not going to lose to today_.

Jumping over rocks and dodging brush and whizzing past trees, he and Tobio took turns gaining the advantage only to lose it again. So he pushed himself a little bit harder, a little bit faster until his lungs might burst and his heart might explode. But it was worth it when he broke the clearing in the center of the field first, just a touch in front of Tobio. He’d do a victory jump if he could but both of them collapsed at the middle, panting with their faces planted in the dirt and grass.

“That’s one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two points for me,” Shouyou gasped out, “one thousand seven hundred and fifty points for you, and three hundred and thirty-two ties.”

“I’ll never lose to you,” Tobio vowed, voice breathy and weak but his eyes promising revenge. Shouyou grinned into the grass, an acceptance to his challenge. _Bring it on_ , he knew his expression said.

Willing his heart to slow down so they could get to the fun part, he glanced around the field, committing the inside to memory as best he could. Dueling fields were massive, though, and it would be weeks before he knew all of this one’s ins and outs.

…If he made Karasuno, that was.

(He would. He had to. There wasn’t any other option.)

But even collapsed on the ground, face half-buried in the grass and breathing in its dirt, Karasuno’s field was the most wonderful thing he’d ever seen. Even better than the Heaven Stage, because this was real, to him. He was here and it was real and so, so close, he could taste it.

Boots treading against grass sounded from the edge of the clearing, and both freshmen rolled over to look.

“Let it go, Tanaka,” Suga was saying as they approached with a duffel bag in hand. The alpha clicked his tongue and crossed his arms but didn’t argue. Suga sighed. “You know, I don’t think I ever said thanks for arranging this. I really appreciate it. _I_ certainly couldn’t have gotten it done.”

It was weird to see such a cool alpha suddenly turn so bashful, but Tanaka pinkened and waved a hand, not looking at all like he’d just been pissed off.

“I mean, I’m no hero or anything,” he denied.

Suga clapped him on the back. “Well you really saved me here.”

Realization jolted through Shouyou liked he’d been electrocuted, and he jumped to his feet.

“You set this up for us?” he cried, hopping over to the alpha, more than a little impressed. Even Tobio hadn’t been able to get them access to the fields, and Tobio had, like, a bazillion doru in the bank. Or his mom did, but it was the same thing.

Tanaka puffed out his chest again.

“You bet your a-” he paused when Suga cleared his throat, coughing once himself, “your _butt_ I did, and don’t forget it, kid! Only someone with connections like me could arrange this!”

If that was true then they were super lucky Tanaka been chosen for their team. Luckier than lucky, actually – they had a field now. They had a _field_. All thanks to the alpha in front of him.

“Wow! You’re really amazing!” Shouyou cried with every last bit of happiness bubbling up inside him and spilling out.

A second flush spread across Tanaka’s face, making him look like he’d just finished doing sprints.

“W-Well, I mean, you don’t have to say it like _that_ … but if you really think so, maybe you can say it again.”

Shouyou was more than happy to obey. “You’re super amazing, Tanaka! The most amazing!”

That alpha scratched at the back of his neck, a funny grin on his face. “Aw geez. Y’know, you’re not too bad, Hinata. You’ve got spunk.”

“I won’t let you down!” he said, happy when the alpha cackled and ruffled his hair. Tobio stood to the side, watching them awkwardly with that same strange look, but Shouyou didn’t have time to think about it before Suga rubbed his hands together and unzipped his duffel bag. Pulling out a few handfuls of dueling pads, he tossed them to the freshman.

With reverent hands, Shouyou inspected the padding slow and thorough, giving unofficial official Karasuno gear all the respect it deserved. What if- what if the Little Giant had worn these? He could be holding a relic!

“Just put it on, dumbass,” Tobio said, ruining the moment as he slipped his own pads over his shins, torso, and arms. Huffing, Shouyou did as he was told.

He relished the feeling of padded weight secured to his body, knowing that it wouldn’t hold him back one bit. That he was about to be able to let loose. The gear was higher quality than he was used to, too, not that his worn, secondhand padding that he’d had since middle school set a high standard.

He snickered at Tobio as the alpha shifted uncomfortably, though. Tobio had been wearing custom dueling uniforms since he’d been born. He’d probably been born _in_ one, actually. Seeing Tobio trying to fit in with normal people was always hilarious.

“Alright!” Suga said, decked out in his own padding. “I’m not sure we really have time to warm up, but if we stick to low-level magic, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Now, it wouldn’t be right for me to ask you two for your language logs until we know if you’ll be on Karasu- oh, um, are you ok, Kageyama?”

The alpha was rubbing at his leg and glaring at Shouyou, vengeance in his gaze. It was a familiar glare, though, one that bounced right off Shouyou’s back, because the alpha had definitely deserved to be kicked just then. Shouyou had done it to silence the comment he was one million percent sure the alpha had been about to make, something like _But we’re going to make it, so what does it matter?_ God, Shouyou could hear it clear as day.

“Right,” Suga continued when he didn’t get a response. “Well anyway, we’ll make do with your basic attacks without getting into specifics. Go ahead and evoke and we’ll talk strategy.”

Shouyou grinned, dropping into the stance that was his evocation word. Evoking was probably his favorite part of using magic, just for the rush it gave him every single time. The tingle of rightness that swept through his body as soon as he planted his legs wide apart and firmly against the ground, shifting his hips just right and keeping his arms at the ready in front. The thrill of energy starting at his toes and creeping up his bones, filling him with a buzz that was better than anything he’d ever felt.

Through the shimmer of orange that briefly glowed around him, he glanced over to Tanaka, curious.

Each person’s evocation looked a little bit different for the few seconds it was visible. Unique, just like their languages. Tobio looked like some kind of ice princess, with blue bits of energy that he’d never admit looked like snowflakes twirling and spinning around him.

Tanaka’s evocation he’d missed at tryouts, though, so he was pretty impressed when the alpha muttered a few words and his hands and eyes seemed to shine a bright, toxic-looking green. Now _that_ was cool – he was almost sad when the effect disappeared after a few moments, along with his and Tobio’s.

“Great,” Suga said when they all turned to him, ready. “Now this Capture the Flag challenge is about you two, so let’s start with Hinata. Based on tryouts, I’m assuming your preference is for emittance, right?”

Shouyou nodded happily. “Yeah! Nullification is cool but it’s not flashy at all, and enhancement is super hard, and it’s way more fun to just attack!”

Suga gave him a warm smile, both of them ignoring Tobio muttering “ _dumbass_ ” under his breath.

“Perfect. We can always use another emitter on the team. Now, since your affinity is earth that means we should-”

“Huh?” Shouyou interrupted him without thought.

“…Huh?” Suga repeated. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Yeah, my affinity isn’t earth.”

“Oh! Sorry, I just assumed, since you used the ground a lot during tryouts. I suppose it’s energy, then? I didn’t see you use mind at all, and not a lot of nature, either. Well, except for uprooting the trees… but I’m, um, not sure that counts.”

“Nope.”

“Oh. Um, void?”

Shouyou shook his head while Suga just kind of stared at him.

Tobio joined in, breaking the awkward silence.

“Shouyou doesn’t have an affinity.”

Suga blinked.

“Eh? D-Doesn’t- doesn’t have an affinity? At _all_? Then you mean-” he seemed to cut himself off, then, his jaw making a clicking sound as it shut. “Are you _sure?_ ”

Tobio nodded, answering the vice-captain’s silent question. “All of his attacks are that powerful until he tires out.”

“But he was throwing energy around and moving the ground for hours! All through tryouts! With minimal breaks in between! And you’re telling me that _all_ his magic is that strong?”

“Shouyou has a high power baseline. And a lot of stamina. We do stamina training every day.”

“A high baseline. _A high baseline_. Gods, I. I need to sit. I’m going to go sit down. Over there. For just a minute. I… just, yeah.”

The two Playmates watched him go in silence, draping himself over a boulder at the edge of the tree line. Shouyou turned to Tobio, a discreet hand next to the side of his mouth.

“Oi, is he ok?”

Tobio only shrugged, looking adorably lost. Like a wide-eyed baby deer.

Now, Shouyou wasn’t an idiot no matter what his Playmate said. He knew his emittance was weirdly strong and that it wasn’t normal to go as hard as he did for hours at a time. But Tobio always told him that his lack of control pretty much made his power useless, and Tsukishima always agreed, and Hitoka and Tadashi usually made themselves scarce when the topic came up, which meant they were being nice and didn’t want to agree out loud with Tobio and Tsukishima. So clearly he had reason to believe it was true.

And Suga had seen him play at tryouts, so he should know about his control issues already. The vice-captain shouldn’t have been impressed at all, really, not like _that_.

But Shouyou found he didn’t mind. Impressing someone like Suga was nice. Really nice. Suga was his new favorite, and he really hoped the omega was ok.

“Oi,” Tanaka barked, spinning both Playmates around so they were in a huddle again. “Looks like I’m in charge for now, so let’s change tactics. I’ve seen Kageyama in action before so I’m assuming he can handle whatever we throw at him for enhancement. Especially since you’ve been on a team together for years.”

“I’m as proficient in Shouyou’s language as he is,” Tobio replied immediately, pissing the omega off.

(It was true, but god, he didn’t have to say it like that. Like Shouyou’s language was easy for him, just like everything else.)

“Heh. It kind of pisses me off when you say it like that,” Tanaka sneered, and Shouyou had never felt more vindicated in his life.

“Yeah, yeah!” he cried, crossing his arms and nodding vigorously towards the older alpha. Tanaka and Suga were both his favorites, now, and clearly Karasuno had been the right place to come.

“Well, we have to play together whether we like it or not, Daichi’s orders. And I’m not gonna say no to him. He’s terrifying.”

“…We know,” both Playmates said as one.

Tanaka nodded wisely. “Exactly. So let’s talk gameplay strategy. It’s three players instead of six, so we should each choose a role and stick to it. What strategy did you use in high school?”

Shouyou looked to Tobio, who stared right back and shrugged.

“We didn’t,” the alpha said.

“Yeah,” added Shouyou. “We just barely had a quorum. We never got a sixth teammate, so we couldn’t compete in any six-person events.”

“Oi! Are you telling me you don’t even have a base strategy? What, were you just gonna wing it today?”

The two freshmen shifted a little guiltily on their feet. Until Tobio had the gall to look Tanaka straight on, one hundred percent seriously, and blankly ask: “What does it matter since I’m there? Even if dumbass Hinata is useless I can enhance your magic while he stays out of the way. We’ll win that way.”

“ _Oi,_ Tobio! I want to be the one hunting down the enemy. I want to emit!” Shouyou refused to be shoved to the side, not when this was his chance to prove that he could be useful to a full-fledged team for the first time in his entire life.

Tanaka waved his hands around like wild, gesturing for them to stop. “Hang on, do you guys even know the rules?”

“Of course!” Shouyou said. “Someone goes and fights off the enemy team and gets the flag while the other people do other less flashy stuff.”

Both alphas were looking at him funny now, and he wasn’t sure what he was saying that was wrong. He’d seen a million matches on the internet and V-screen. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.

Tanaka shook his head first, arms on his hips in a stance that was kind of like Shouyou’s mom when he’d done something especially dumb.

“When’s the last time you both played CTF?”

“Middle school,” Tobio said at the same time Shouyou admitted “Never.”

There was a brief pause.

Birds chirped in the distance.

“Hah?” Tanaka asked, weirdly calm. “Say that again, because it sounded like you said ‘never.’”

“My middle school team only had five people, too,” he explained. “So I never got to play CTF in a real tournament. But I’ve watched the pros a lot on the V-screen!”

Before Tanaka could respond Suga walked up beside them, looking much pinker and lively. Shouyou was glad – the older omega had seemed kind of sick during tryouts, too, and he really wanted one of his new favorite people to be alright.

“Ok,” Suga announced cheerfully. “I’m back. I’m good and I’m back. How about we talk strategy for a bit before we get back to magical communication. Sound good?”

“S-Suga,” Tanaka said, sounding weirdly like Natsu did before she started crying. “Hinata’s never played CTF before. He doesn’t even know the _rules_.”

Suga blinked, then turned around without a word and headed back to his rock.

“Ok, new new plan,” Tanaka said as he steeled himself, looking a little like he was going to war. “I’ll make the strategy: you and Kageyama tag-team the flag retrieval, Kageyama as your supporter while you emit. All you have to do is find the flag without getting touched and bring it back to our side. I’ll play defense and double as a jail guard.”

“That’s not going to be effe-” Tobio started, cutting himself off when the older alpha rounded on him with a growl.

Without missing a beat, Tanaka tilted his head back at a pretty scary angle, shorter than Tobio and yet still somehow looking down at them both. The glint in his eyes said he was seconds away from all bets being off. Even Shouyou took a step back, making sure Tobio was in front of him.

“Oh ho? You lookin’ down on my strategy, huh, punk?” Tanaka sing-songed, his tone grating against Shouyou’s ears. “Lemme ask you this: you wanna be the one to tell Daichi you’re not gonna work with Hinata? In the challenge he gave you to _prove you can work with Hinata?_ You got a death wish or something?”

“N-No,” Tobio stuttered, leaning back so far he nudged into Shouyou.

“Then get both your asses over there and start running drills!”

“Yes sir!” the Playmates shouted in sync, scrambling over each other to reach the area of grass he’d pointed out. They arrived in a tangle of limbs, bickering until they sorted out whose arms and legs were whose and stood close, wary. Tanaka hadn’t followed yet, but at least he wasn’t shouting and threatening Daichi’s wrath anymore.

Shouyou pulled on Tobio’s collar until the stupidly tall alpha was at eye-level.

“Um, what drills?” he whispered. Tobio, useless as ever, shrugged. He’d been doing that a lot lately.

“How about some simple attack and defense drills?” a voice said from behind them, causing both freshmen to yelp and jump backwards. Well, Tobio jumped backwards, a little. Shouyou had ended up latched onto Tobio’s upper half like he was climbing a tree.

He hopped down, a little embarrassed when he realized it was just Suga, looking revived for a second time. With a relieved grin Tanaka jogged up behind him.

“CTF requires a solid offense and defense to win,” Suga continued. “How about we start with offense. Kageyama, which of Hinata’s typical attacks do you prefer to enhance?”

Tobio furrowed his brows like he was thinking extra hard. “I don’t have a preference,” he said after a minute.

“Ok. Of course not,” Suga replied, a little bland. “Well, which of his attacks are most effective when you enhance them?”

Tobio turned to Shouyou, making the lost baby deer face again until Shouyou snickered at him and it turned into a glare.

“He doesn’t really enhance my attacks,” Shouyou explained, deciding to show mercy. “So we don’t really know.”

The sound of a slap startled the group, and they turned to see a bright red handprint on Tanaka’s forehead.

“You two better be joking around. You were teammates! Even if you didn’t compete together, what about during practice?”

Ah. Shouyou understood the confusion, now. He should probably get everyone caught up so Suga could stop turning so pale and Tanaka’s forehead could be saved – because wow, that looked like it hurt.

“We’re dueling rivals,” he explained. “We never practiced combo attacks because there wasn’t a need.”

Tobio scoffed. “I told you we’re not rivals until you’re at least Class 2, dumbass. Stop getting ahead of yourself.”

“We’re future rivals,” amended Shouyou, the words sitting sour on his tongue even as Tobio nodded. It was practically the same thing – he didn’t get what the big deal was, why Tobio had to say that every time. Like he’d never be good enough.

When he glanced back over to Suga, the omega was staring with something that seemed like concern sitting in his soft brown eyes. Except they weren’t so soft anymore, looking a little bit hard and a little bit pained.

“Please. Please tell me you’re kidding.”

Shouyou cocked his head.

“No?”

Suga didn’t seem to know what to say to that, except an eventual “If you want to be rivals, why’d you both try out for the same team?”

As if they’d practiced, the Playmates both squared their shoulders and told him as one: “I _have_ to play for Karasuno.”

“But _why_?”

“The Little Giant played here, so I promised myself I would too!” Shouyou cried. Apparently that was an acceptable answer, since Suga turned to Tobio next.

“I heard Coach Ukai was coming back,” he said. “I also know someone who was on the team a long time ago.”

Shouyou spun on the alpha, a little surprised, because he hadn’t known that. Why hadn’t Tobio ever told him? That was so cool, and so _unfair_ , and Tobio was definitely going to be explaining himself later.

A sound suspiciously like a groan came from Suga’s throat, drawing all eyes back to him.

“Ok. So I just want to make sure I have this clear. You two, who claim to be dueling rivals- who claim to _want_ to be dueling rivals,” he corrected when Tobio opened his mouth, “were on the same team all through high school but never did any events together or planned any combined attacks. And then you decided to come to the same university team, even though you _still want to be dueling rivals_ , and just figured you wouldn’t have to communicate with each other magically? That you could just continue to be rivals on the same team? _Do I have that right_?”

He was breathing hard towards the end, looking more and more frazzled with each word until Shouyou wasn’t sure Suga’s eyes could even get any wider, any more pained.

“Um,” Tobio said.

Shouyou scratched the back of his neck. “Yes?”

It was like the omega shut down, or something. He kind of drooped there for a minute, his shoulders falling and his neck going lax enough for his head to loll to the side. The change was fascinating, in a horrible kind of way, and Shouyou stood frozen to the ground. Even if he wanted to help he couldn’t, his limbs too scared to move. Tobio didn’t budge, either, and thankfully Tanaka grabbed Suga before he could fall.

He desperately looked his vice-captain over, which Shouyou had expected, then started to shake him vigorously back and forth, which Shouyou had _not_.

“Suga! Oi, _Suga_! Don’t die! You die and Daichi’s gonna kill me! I’m not gonna die a virgin, Suga! I _can’t_!”

Shouyou watched on, panicking, as Tanaka shook Suga back and forth while his limp head struggled to keep up with the motion.

Suga couldn’t die. He just couldn’t, not when he’d been so kind to Shouyou. Oh god, Tanaka was right, too – Daichi would blame them! But what could he do? He wasn’t a doctor or a nurse or anything that could help someone who’d just quit on the world like that. But maybe…

“I know CRP!” he blurted, thrilled until a sharp pain stung him on the back of the head. He spun around and bared his teeth at Tobio, who was scowling at him with a raised hand.

“It’s PCR, you absolute dumbass,” hissed Tobio.

“At least I’m trying to help, idiot!” Shouyou shot back.

“It’s not helping if you don’t even know the name!”

“Oh yeah? What’s your great idea, then? Suga’s dying and you’re not doing a thing about it!”

“ _I’ll_ give Suga PCR, and I’ll be better at it than you.”

“Will not!”

“Will too.”

“Will-”

“ _Oi,_ can it you two!” Tanaka snapped.

“Sorry,” they muttered in unison.

“I-It’s CP- CPR,” a hoarse voice choked out, and the three of them froze.

Tanaka ducked to be able to look the omega in the eyes, his head hanging forward as it was.

“S-Suga? Suga! You’re alive!”

“Somehow,” Suga replied, and at least he wasn’t stuttering anymore. Shouyou could feel himself start to breathe again, and he sagged against his Playmate.

Although the older omega did start to mutter then, under his breath towards the grass, and Tanaka leaned in even further, concern all over his face.

“Suga?”

“I- I am Karasuno’s vice-captain,” Suga said, loud enough to be heard, this time.

It took a moment but Tanaka grinned, throwing his fist in the air. “Hell yeah you are!”

“I’ve helped lead this team for two whole years now. A team that had you and Noya on it for one of those.”

“Yea- eh? Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I can do this. I can face any challenge. I can guide these freshmen.”

Shouyou wasn’t expecting the omega to slap his own cheeks so hard the sound rang throughout the clearing, leaving two red, irritated-looking prints on his cheeks. Suga looked anything but in pain, though, a determined set to his mouth and something steel in his brown eyes.

Tanaka reached for his vice-captain before stopping himself. “O-Oi, Suga?”

“Sorry. It seems to work for you and Yui. I kind of see why, now.”

“Well sure, but-”

“Ah,” Suga interrupted him, “there’s no time to waste. We have what, fifteen minutes left?”

Shouyou glanced down at his cell watch. “Yep!”

Suga nodded. “Ok. In the next fifteen minutes I want to see that you two have at least three pre-planned combo attacks, three pre-planned defensive moves, and signals or codewords for all of them. Fair enough? Worst case scenario you’ll need something that will take care of no more than three people. Shouyou making the ground unstable is a fine start for one of your moves, but you need more for when they start to counter.”

Suga and Tanaka immediately started brainstorming, occasionally asking him or Tobio a question about what they were comfortable doing.

Shouyou listened with every last bit of attention he had, thrilled. This. This was what he’d wanted all along from a team. Guidance, teamwork, and an experienced leader who actually communicated with him. To finally have it now after so long, it was exhilarating.

(He wasn’t going to lose it, today. No way.)

“So normally I wouldn’t suggest this as a strategy,” Suga began, “but with Shouyou’s high baseline and stamina, I think we can make it work. Instead of breaking up the ground, try using it as a barrier. Like a wall, but a circular one that traps your opponents.”

“Ooh, like a reverse moat?” Shouyou cried, picturing a ring of earth around his opponents like a mini city wall.

“Sure! That’ll stall them for a few seconds, at least, until they can use their own earth magic or climb out. But if you’re not down much power, you can keep doing it. Let’s give it a try. Tanaka, you’ll be the opponent.”

The alpha gave his padding a few pats for good measure then jogged a little bit away, turning to face the freshmen.

“Bring it!” he shouted, grinning a little madly. Something in Shouyou lit up, and he finally gave into the itch to _move_.

His body dropped into words he’d learned long ago, shifting his muscles through the motions to make his utterance like it was the most natural thing in the world. One by one he formed them, stepping forward to say _Earth_. _Around_ , a tiny shift of his abdomen. _Him_ , a twitch of his planted heel in Tanaka’s direction. And an upward flick of his right arm to top it off: _high, go_.

And his magic responded in kind, welling up inside him in response to his request and burrowing deep into the ground until a chunk of earth separated itself, jamming upwards in the direction of his current “enemy” and forming a jagged wall.

Well, kind of. If Tanaka’s direction had been about ten feet to the right, maybe.

Shouyou frowned, dropping back down into his default stance and trying again.

_Left_ , he added, jerking a shoulder to form the word. The directional command worked but this time his wall of earth was tiny, jutting out of the ground maybe a foot. Tanaka stared for a beat before hopping over it with ease.

Tobio hung his head.

“Um,” Shouyou said, feeling his face warm. One last time, he told himself, emphasizing the word _high_ in his utterance.

The ground underneath Tanaka shot up so suddenly that he barely had a chance to jerk backwards, disappearing behind a massive earthen wall. It didn’t surround him, but it was _something_.

“Ha!” Shouyou shouted, fist in the air. A scoff from his side only dampened his mood a little, because what else could he expect from Tobio, really. Anything less than perfection wasn’t worth anything at all to him.

“You have to be more precise,” Tobio said with a scowl, right on cue. “You’re going to send Tanaka flying like that.”

Shouyou scrunched his nose, annoyed.

“I’m doing the best I can.”

“Well it’s not good enough. Command it to be a specific diameter, thickness, speed, and height.”

“I don’t have all those category words, yet!”

Tobio hung his head again, clearly starting to get pissed, but at least Shouyou couldn’t see that stupid scowl anymore.

“What utterance are you using?” Suga stepped in to save him, like a silvery angel from above. Shouyou might’ve been a little bit in love.

“‘Earth around him high left go,’” he translated.

“Good, if a little imprecise. But that’s what we have enhancers for! Why don’t you show Kageyama the gestures that make up that sentence and-”

“I already know it,” Tobio interrupted him in a mutter, dropping into Shouyou’s usual stance as cleanly as if it was his own. “Emit, dumbass Hinata.”

He uttered the magic words again, watching Tobio repeat them before mentally adding his own commands. This time the ground shimmered a little bit blue as it formed a perfect ring around Tanaka, thick and tall enough that it looked like it would be a genuine obstacle in the middle of a match.

And sure, it worked great, and sure, Tobio’s repetition of his words had been perfect, but it didn’t sit right, not with Shouyou. His imitation of Shouyou’s gestures was too clean, too precise. Shouyou’s magic was just a little bit wild – something that Tobio had never quite understood. And yet the magic responded to him anyway.

…It _really_ pissed Shouyou off.

“W-Wow, incredible!” Suga said, slack-jawed and staring at the giant protrusion in awe. That pissed Shouyou off too. Because he’d started it, sure, but the massive wall in front of them had been all Tobio in the end. Tobio adding his own magic, altering the original command to suit his needs. Always so perfect, so stupidly perfect.

Like he didn’t even have to _try_.

Shouyou grit his teeth.

“Again, dumbass. We need to get this right.”

So Shouyou did it again, and again and again, taking Tobio’s critiques and orders and irritated yelling because it was the only thing he could do, apparently. Tobio was the genius here, not him. Tobio hadn’t had a magical speech act fail in the entire time Shouyou had known him.

It all started to blend together, eventually, a string of “faster” and “higher” and “thicker” until none of it even really made sense anymore, and Shouyou ended his evocation out of frustration.

“I- I’m done for now,” he pleaded more than said to Suga, who nodded at him with widened eyes. Tobio seemed to disagree.

“What the hell?” the alpha snapped at him. He flinched, which irritated him even more. Tobio didn’t have the right to make him feel like this. Like complete shit.

“Oi, I’m talking to you, dumbass. If you keep making shitty utterances like that you’ll never be essen-”

“Essential to what? Winning?” Shouyou shouted back, totally and utterly done. He’d had it. Squaring his shoulders, he faced his Playmate. “I _know_ that, idiot. You tell me that all the time. And I know I need to get better, but god, you don’t have to be such an asshole about it!”

“What’s going on here?” a deep, displeased voice asked from the edge of their little clearing. Daichi, apparently, had wanted to be early. Asahi too, by the looks of the tall, stocky alpha hiding behind his captain, shifting awkwardly on his feet like he had to go to the bathroom. “Why are they here and geared up already?”

“Daichi!” Suga squeaked, waving his hands wildly in front of him. “We got here a bit early, is all!”

Tobio ignored both of them, apparently not finished. The anger in his eyes burned thick into the back of Shouyou’s skull.

“I’m trying to make you better!”

“No you’re not! You’re just yelling at me and it’s not helping!”

“Because you’re not listening, _dumbass_!” Tobio all but roared, an undercurrent of true fury in his voice that Shouyou wasn’t used to. “You never listen and that’s why you never get any better and you’re stuck being a burden to the team. Forget the Heaven Stage, you won’t even be good enough to play for Karasuno like this! And you’ll never come close to reaching _me_!”

Everyone in the clearing froze, even Tobio looking a little surprised at himself in the aftermath, but it was too late. The echo of his words grated against the silence. They tore against Shouyou’s heart, one by one, each cutting a little deeper than the last, so deep that they might just tear him in half. It stung so _bad_ , all Shouyou’s insecurities, all his fears laid bare like that-

God.

Tobio knew him better than he’d thought, apparently. At least he knew enough to know what would hurt the most.

“ _Oi,_ you little-”

“Tanaka,” Suga hissed, “stay out of it.”

Shouyou didn’t know what to say, but he knew that he had to say something. Had to defend himself somehow. What Tobio said, it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. He was good, even if he wasn’t great. And he was going to get better.

He _could_ , probably.

Maybe.

…He hoped.

He so very desperately hoped.

(But sometimes he just wasn’t sure.)

“I see,” he said after a minute of trying and failing to come up with anything good. The figures in front of him had started to blur, so he wiped at his eyes furiously, refusing to cry in front of Suga and Tanaka and Daichi and anyone else – something that was getting harder and harder each second he stood there.

“I guess I’ll always be a shitty d-duelist with no control, then,” he continued, hating the way his voice hitched every so often. Weak. He sounded so weak. “S-Sorry that I can’t get better. Sorry that I can’t control my magic. Sorry that I’m a useless teammate. And- And I’m sorry I can’t be a magical genius with everything handed to me like you! I _hate_ you!”

With that he turned and ran past a stunned captain and team, hating the day and hating Tobio and hating this awful empty, aching feeling in his chest. It kept growing no matter what he did but at least it was growing slower now that he was away from the echo of Tobio’s words, ringing through the air over and over again. So he dashed and sprinted in between pine trees and bushes and rocks until he reached the old building that was Karasuno’s observation room.

Finally, throwing open the door and stumbling inside, he sat. And then he sobbed.

At least something had gone right, though: he was pretty sure the upperclassmen hadn’t seen the first of his tears start to fall.

*

Koushi watched Kageyama watch Hinata leave, regretting every second of the fight that he’d let go on. Hinata had probably handled it a lot better than he himself would’ve, he had to admit. Kageyama’s words had been cutting, cruel. But to come from a Playmate, teammate, and lover? That had to hurt more than anything.

(He didn’t even want to think about Daichi saying those things to him, not outside of nightmares. Not now and not ever.)

Koushi sighed, disappointed in all of them, a little bit. Holding Tanaka back had probably been a mistake, but letting it get that far in the first place – that was on _Koushi_.

But the mess had happened, and now it was his job to clean it up.

From the corner of his eye he saw Daichi open his mouth, a frown marring his (gorgeously) confused face, but a single look from the omega shut it right back up again. Koushi could feel the gravity in his own expression. Daichi could too, apparently.

The omega turned to Kageyama.

“You’re tough on everyone. But you’re toughest on him because you care, right?” Koushi said into the tense silence, startling the alpha. “I know what happened to you at the end of middle school.”

Kageyama looked to him with wide, blue eyes, so haunted that it nearly froze Koushi in his tracks. It was what he needed to see, though, that fear. It told him he was right.

So Koushi continued. “You don’t want to be without a team again. And based on what you told me in the library, you don’t want that for him either.”

Kageyama shook his head once, quickly. “I promised him a long time ago I’d help him duel.”

“I’m glad. And it’s great that you’re taking that seriously, but I’m just not sure you understand that language proficiency comes differently to everyone, magical or not.”

At that Kageyama scowled, glaring a hole into the ground beneath them.

“He works hard. He should be better by now.”

Ah. Koushi had been even more right than he thought. He stepped closer, putting a gentle hand on the taller boy’s shoulders.

“Look, Kageyama. Hinata improving at a slower pace than you’d like doesn’t mean he’s not improving at all. You have to give it time. You have to let it happen. And if you don’t want to wait around, then you actually have to help him.”

Finally the alpha looked up, such innocent confusion on his face that it hurt Koushi’s heart.

“Help him?”

“You said you were going to turn him into someone who wouldn’t get cut again. Well, yelling at him on the field to have more control isn’t going to do that. Actually helping him control it will. You say you’re a supporter. So support him. You get what I mean, right?”

Kageyama’s eyes were blown wide and a little unseeing, and his nod did nothing to convince Koushi that his words had gotten through. But he let it go, since he had something else to attend to, something more urgent.

“Great. I’m going to find Hinata, ok? Why don’t you stay here and chat with Tanaka some more. Get a feel for his favorite attacks and a couple of his words, even if he’ll be your defense. Got it?”

“…Yes.”

“Oh, Kageyama. One more thing.”

Koushi didn’t know if Kageyama believed in one god or many, but he made sure the look on his face would send the fear of meeting their maker straight into the alpha’s heart. When the teen visibly shivered and backed up a step, he knew Daichi would be proud.

“When I bring Hinata back, you’re _going to apologize_.”

Satisfied, he turned and left, jogging in the directly he’d seen the redhead flee.

 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, my Tale of Woe: a while ago my work gave me some side projects. Fine. And then my boss suddenly turned them into main projects on top of the main part of my job with some very quick deadlines (end of February, first week of March), so then on top of suddenly getting home from work/school around seven pm each day and having no time to write since I have to prepare for the next day of work/school, I also have to spend my weekends doing additional work now. (Can’t even complain, since they’re paying for the grad school.) And this is on top of my trusty laptop of seven-ish years finally biting the dust (RIP Lappy, you will be missed) and having to order and set up a new computer, then finding out its keyboard and mouse were broken so I literally couldn't do anything, and also on top of a bout of flu – no joke. These last three weeks have been a very terrible and frustrating and stressed-filled ride that I would not like to take again, and long story short, adulting is the worst. I was not prepared for this and want a refund. (But, like, no one died and I have food and shelter and stuff, so I guess I can't complain too hard?)


	4. The Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have decided to stop further mentioning my update schedule in the hopes that life will actually let me stick to one. My new goal: 2-3 weeks. Not what I wanted at all but unfortunately necessary rn. Hopefully summer (which, thankfully, is coming up pretty quickly here for me at the end of April) will allow me more time.
> 
> Also, while I plan to introduce tournament-y stuff soonish, I don’t plan to follow canon in terms of who they play, who wins/loses, training camps, etc. Mostly because dueling itself is not really the main point here. However, Kagehina being a special duo is just too irresistible for me to ignore. 
> 
> Anyway, here’s part two of the last chapter, which is now nearly twice as long (whoops) (which is also why it took so long (whoops). I actually feel a little horrible about that). Thanks for continuing to read and support – it means the world to me! And of course, still no beta, still no sleep, and still probably a whole slew of errors. Feel free to let me know.

***

_August 28 th, 532 P.C. – the Present_

 

 

Finding Hinata was going to be a lot more inconvenient without half the campus stalking his every move, Koushi was quickly realizing.

But while he didn’t have social media to help him out, he did have instincts. And he’d bet good money that his and Hinata’s weren’t too dissimilar.

If Hinata was feeling cornered, hurt and flustered and upset, he would want someplace quiet and alone. Someplace safe. And from what he’d seen Koushi doubted the younger omega would leave the field so close to his match, so that left one place to check.

When he softly pushed the sliding doors of the observation room open, he could smell that he’d been right.

Hurt.

That’s what the room stank of, so overpowering and sharp when it assaulted his senses that his eyes began to water. The odor coated the room thick enough that he couldn’t even pinpoint where its source was hiding.

Not next to Karasuno’s designated lockers, not inside the connected restrooms, not near the threadbare couches in the sitting area as Koushi poked his head around each one.

Not even behind the gods’ eye where all their live feeds from the field cameras were displayed, although Koushi did stop long enough to watch a grainy projection of Tanaka and his Playmate scolding a wide-eyed Kageyama.

His fingers twitched towards the audio button on the center console underneath before he flattened them at his sides. He could satisfy his curiosity later.

“Suga?” a muffled voiced asked, a little choked and wet, and it just about broke Koushi’s heart. He spun towards the source and saw the omega curled on himself under a window, face in his knees and sniffling hard. But at least he didn’t seem to be crying… _anymore_ , Koushi amended, when Hinata looked up to reveal his red and bloodshot eyes.

The loneliness in them was too much, a blow to the tender part of Koushi’s gut. So he knelt down in front of Hinata and gathered him in his arms, rocking them both back and forth until Hinata stopped sniffling and wiping at his eyes. From this close Koushi could smell a hint of pre-heat emanating from the teen’s neck, but he filed the information away for later.

“Better now?” he asked eventually.

“No.”

Well. Fair. Koushi was saved from trying to figure out how to respond to that when Hinata sighed and continued.

“He- he just doesn’t get it, Suga. Tobio doesn’t understand. He’s always perfect. He was proficient in his language as a child, for crap’s sake. And he’s always had access to magic-friendly spots and coaches and trainers and linguists and everyone who will help him, and he didn’t even _need_ it. He doesn’t know what it’s like to need it and not have it.”

Koushi blinked, surprised.

“Didn’t you have some of those things too, growing up? Language diagnosticians? Trainers?”

Hinata’s major was Magical Applications, he knew. Which was basically code for pre-professional dueling, unless he wanted to go into security.

Koushi doubted it.

But either way, pretty much everyone who was serious about being a competent magic-user by university age had grown up with tons of help. Learning human languages was hard, even with known grammars and lists of words and native speakers around to help. Learning a magical language from scratch through trial and error all alone? And learning it _well_? Almost unheard of.

Almost.

Hinata laughed at his question, a choked gurgle that was probably supposed to be a snort, but at least it was something.

“No way. We never had any money before I got into high school,” he said, relaxing his weight into Koushi, who only held him tighter. “I mean, it wasn’t a bad life or anything, don’t get me wrong. I had friends and a great family, so I didn’t care about anything else besides dueling. But there was no one to help me diagnose my language. I had to figure out everything on my own.”

“But- but what about your middle school team?” Koushi asked, scrambling for something, anything to stop the wave of awe that was forming at this kid’s perseverance.

“Heh. _Team_. I dueled with my friends in middle school, sure, but we weren’t a team. Not really. They only joined since I begged so much. I had to help them figure out their languages and everything.”

Koushi swallowed thickly. “And high school?”

It seemed to hit the spot, coaxing Hinata closer to his regular sunny glow. Koushi could’ve cried in relief.

“High school was great! We weren’t really a team either, but everyone was better than me, so I didn’t have to help them at all. I had a whole hour every day to learn my magic!”

The gratefulness in his tone cut like a knife to the chest, and Koushi started to think that maybe he should have kept his protective dueling gear on if the conversation was going to hurt this much.

Because an hour was nothing. An hour was pathetic, and to reach Class 4 despite it.... Gods.

“Well, until I had to get a job sophomore year to help out my mom,” the redhead continued, turning glum. “Then I had to cut my field time in half. Oh, but Tobio would buy out emittance rooms during free period, so that helped a lot!”

The older omega stared, taking it all in far more awkwardly than he’d ever admit. “That’s why your lexicon is still so small,” he said kind of dumbly.

It wasn’t at all what he’d meant to say, and really not even close to representing the level of respect that was blooming inside him towards one Hinata Shouyou.

Although it wasn’t like Koushi hadn’t suspected Hinata was a rare gem, hadn’t seen something special in him at tryouts. Even then he’d thought Hinata could become a proficient earth magic-user, a vital asset to the team.

But now? Now it was clear that with the right amount of dedicated time and training, they could turn Hinata into someone extraordinary.

Someone who belonged on the Heaven Stage.

A hint of distress renewed itself in the air, suddenly, and it put Koushi on edge as his muscles tightened then relaxed. Hinata buried his head against the upperclassman’s collarbone until all he could see of his head were those thick tufts of orange, curling slightly and sticking out in every direction.

"But I _tried_! I really did! I practiced every chance I got, even in the places I wasn’t supposed to since they didn’t have a very good security system at our school. And I got a job in a magic-friendly building, so I’d practice during all my breaks, and I got really good at my magic’s grammar and expressive style. And still…”

_And still I’m like this_. Koushi could feel the words against his chest, even if the teen didn’t voice them.

A slight throbbing in his palms made Koushi realized he’d been digging his nails into them, making four perfect little crescents in each one. Because he understood what Hinata hadn’t been saying. He understood all too well. The feeling of doing all he could, and it never being enough.

“And I finally have the chance to join an actual team, and I. I need to, Suga. I _need_ to. I…,” he trailed off, head hanging towards the floor and voice turning soft. “He’s always so far ahead of me. I just don’t want to fall behind.”

Yeah, _there_ was the critical hit. Koushi’s chest felt like it was seizing, and he nuzzled desperately into whatever part of Hinata’s neck he could reach. A comfort to himself as much as the other boy, because gods. Koushi really needed it.

Needed it to dispel that image of Noya and Kageyama on that eternally stretching field, so far away and untouchable. He still saw it sometimes at night. But this wasn’t about him, this wasn’t about his fears at all.

This was about Hinata. Well, Hinata and Kageyama.

And then it struck Koushi suddenly too, the realization that there was much more at stake here than just a spot on a team. Even more than Hinata’s self-confidence: his and Kageyama’s whole relationship seemed to be teetering on the edge of a cliff, about to be pushed over the edge by miscommunication.

But the way they looked at each other, sometimes, the feelings they showed through their eyes and the way they handled each other so painfully gentle when it seemed like no one else was looking – it was something worth saving, so Koushi clenched his jaw and hardened his resolve.

He could help fix this.

“You know,” he began as delicately as he could, “I think you could improve a lot faster if you started working with Kageyama more regularly instead of only viewing him as a rival.”

Hinata scooted away from him then, enough that Koushi could see the put-out expression taking over his face.

“Tobio doesn’t like to work with people who-” the redhead paused, flattening his hair with one hand and scrunching his face into a familiar frown, “-aren’t essential to winning,” Hinata mimicked the alpha perfectly. Even the air around them seemed to chill, a commanding aura taking the omega over ever so briefly. Koushi couldn’t stop the inelegant snort that snuck past his lips – gods, the _accuracy_ – and turned it into a cough as best he could.

“I’m, uh, sure he doesn’t actually think that,” Koushi lied through his teeth, trying to maintain a pleasantly neutral face. It wasn’t quite working as chortles kept hovering in his throat, ready to escape.

Hinata rose up to his knees. “He does! He really does! He even says it to Tadashi and Hitoka sometimes! And he gets all yelly and rude about it… but he’s not usually _mean_ , not like he was just now.”

Oh. Koushi balked at that, because Yamaguchi and Yachi were two of the gentlest souls he’d ever met, and perhaps he had more of a problem on his hands than he thought.

“Don’t you think your upcoming cycle had something to do with today?” he tried next in an attempt to steer their conversation into safer waters. Not that it was even a good excuse. But he hoped there was some kernel of truth in there, maybe.

( _Please let there be a kernel of truth, there_ , he sent a quick thought towards the heavens, just in case.

The god or gods that may be seemed to have a funny sense of humor, but maybe they could humor him this once.)

Hinata wasn’t having it, puffing out his cheeks petulantly.

“Maybe,” the redhead admitted under his breath, looking like he’d been sucking on a lemon. “He does get extra frowny when he’s close to rut. But…”

Koushi waited a few seconds before prompting him again. “But what?”

Hinata sank back down to the floor, clutching at his middle so protectively that Koushi wanted to replace those hands with his own.

“But I know that wasn’t all of it, even if it’s true. And I don’t want him to think that. That I’m a burden.”

Ah.

“That’s why you needed a break, wasn’t it?” He hadn’t wanted to hear his future mate tear him apart so easily. And instead he’d made it even worse – gods how that would _hurt_.

(Koushi knew it did, because he could literally taste it. The bitter aftertaste of despair in the air lingered on his tongue like spoiled milk.

Each puff he breathed in felt like failure.)

Hinata nodded, head hanging towards the floor, and at this point Koushi was pretty sure the gods had missed his plea.

Except maybe they hadn’t, when it struck him. A little bit of divine inspiration. The best idea he’d had all week.

It was perfect.

Unless it wasn’t, and this would all go to hell. But at this point, he was willing to take that risk.

Quickly, hoping Hinata wouldn’t notice, he typed a short message on his cell watch, clicking “send” as discreetly as he could. Simple.

The next part wasn’t so simple – subtly shifting himself and the omega in his arms until they were facing the gods’ eye. In front of them sat twenty flat projections from cameras placed all over the field, stacked neatly in three rows of five: a “god’s eye view” of the playable area that the refs used to monitor matches. Each camera feed was colorful and moving and begging to be watched. Except Hinata wasn’t watching, yet.

Koushi’s heart pounded and his fingers trembled as he logged into the team’s field interface from his watch and “accidentally” pressed the remote audio button.

…He _really_ hoped this was a good idea.

Immediately each projection started pouring out crisp, clear sound. Hinata shot his head up in surprise, eyes darting all over the virtual screens as the room was filled with a deluge of rustling leaves and chirping birds and two very pissed off alphas talking sternly to a third.

It was that specific camera feed that Koushi increased the volume for, letting out a loud “oops!” for good measure.

“…isn’t the Second Dark Ages anymore, Kageyama,” Daichi was saying, his hands on his hips and a disappointed set to his jaw, “and we’re not animals. Just because you’re nearing rut doesn’t mean you can blow up at a teammate like that. At your _Playmate_ like that.”

“ _Yeah_ ,” whispered Hinata under his breath. “You tell him, captain!”

Koushi bit his lip to keep from laughing.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said loudly once he felt like he could keep a steady voice, “I must’ve hit the wrong button. Should I turn it off?”

“No,” blurted Hinata with a hastily waved hand. “I- I want to hear this!”

A grin spread across Koushi’s face, only to turn into a full-blown smile when Daichi checked his watch then shot a subtle glance towards the camera. Quick enough to be innocent and purposeful enough to be nothing of the sort.

They were in business.

And he was utterly optimistic until Tsukishima of all people wandered into the projection frame, Yamaguchi in tow, and Koushi cursed himself for not seeing them approach on the other screens. But Daichi was there and on board with his plan – hopefully he’d intervene before too much damage could be done.

Tsukishima stopped a bit away from Kageyama on the field, eyeing him up and down in a way Koushi knew was meant to irritate.

“You know,” he began, his voice a little tinny through the speakers, “for someone so good at languages, you’re laughably bad with words.”

“Wow. Never thought I’d agree with Tsukishima,” Hinata mumbled at the same time Kageyama bit out a “Hah?”

Tsukishima held up his cell watch pointedly. “The gods’ eye, genius. All team members have access to the feeds during practice hours. Oddly enough it unlocked a bit early today, so Ennoshita was giving us a virtual tour of the field when we were treated to your spectacular little blowup.”

Even through the screen Koushi could see Kageyama pale. Tsukishima seemed to enjoy that, tilting his head with that impressive smirk he wore so often.

“What, didn’t want the team to see you dress down your own Playmate like that? Careful, king, or they won’t even give you the chance to be kicked off _this_ team.”

“Tsukishima,” Daichi warned, finally. It was about time.

“And then you’ll really have no one again, won’t you? Because Hinata’s not going to stick around someone who can only see him as a useless little commoner while you sit so far above the rest of us on your throne.”

“ _Tsukishima_.”

This time the blonde listened to his captain, backing down.

It was Kageyama who didn’t, stepping closer to Tsukishima like they were squaring off. “I’m trying to _help_ him.”

The blonde stared at him for a long time.

“Good god, you really believe that, don’t you?” He shook his head. “Let’s go, Yamaguchi. He’s beyond saving.”

He walked off the screen with the beta, popping into other views as he headed towards the sidelines where Koushi could see the others starting to stretch. His attention turned back to the dark-haired alpha, though, who turned to the captain with something almost desperate etched into his face.

“I don’t think Shouyou’s useless,” said Kageyama. Daichi stared him down.

“Have you ever told him that?”

“…Why would I tell him that?”

“Because if you only tell him that he’s a burden, that’s what he’ll think you think of him,” Daichi said very slowly, narrowing his eyes at the other alpha. Koushi could feel the pressure of his gaze through the projection.

(If disapproving stares could be weaponized, Daichi could probably rule the world.)

Kageyama furrowed his brows. “I think he’s wasting his potential. He’s not turning his raw talent into anything usable.”

“You’re his supporter, now,” said Daichi, straight to the point. “Isn’t that your job?”

A hitch interrupted Hinata’s breathing, and Koushi’s arms tensed around him. They were on the cusp of something, here. So close.

“Look,” continued the captain when Kageyama didn’t reply, “I don’t know how your high school team worked. But if you want to play supporter for Karasuno, you should be able to turn what power all of your teammates currently have into the best possible chance for the team. Got it?”

There was something in Kageyama’s eyes, something distant that was visible even through the projection, then, as he looked up and answered with a resolute “Yes.”

Tanaka chose that moment to join in and jerk his thumb towards Kageyama, causing a sliver of panic to shoot through Koushi’s core. Tanaka was a great teammate and a great friend.

But this was a delicate situation, and Tanaka was also not a subtle man.

“Good luck getting that to play out, captain,” he said with a snort. “They think they’re destined rivals or something.”

Daichi’s brows shot towards his hairline. “…Rivals,” he deadpanned.

“As if I could make something so stupid up,” Tanaka scoffed, crossing his arms.

“Right. Well,” Daichi started, and Koushi could actually feel him scrambling for words. He could relate. “None of that, anymore. I don’t care what you were before or what you are in the future. As long as you’re playing with Karasuno, you two are each other’s greatest ally.”

So simple. So perfect. Hinata shivered against Koushi’s frame again.

And that. That right there was why Daichi was captain, and Koushi never wanted to be.

“Ally?” Kageyama repeated, looking like his whole world was tilting on its axis. From the way Koushi could feel Hinata’s pulse picking up, it seemed like he wasn’t alone.

Daichi’s eyes darted briefly back towards the camera – a reassurance. They were so close. He’d bring them home.

“Koushi told me what you told him a few days ago. Did you mean it?”

No hesitation from the alpha. “Of course.”

With a curious hum, Hinata leaned to the side and shot Koushi a questioning glance, but he didn’t ask. Which was good, because Koushi wasn’t going to answer. Hearing it from Kageyama would be even better… if they could draw it out of him, that was.

“Then isn’t it time you started making good on that promise?” Koushi’s Playmate asked the alpha before him.

Kageyama nodded slowly.

“He’s fast, right? Hinata’s powerful and has a lot of potential.”

The nod was quicker this time. “Obviously. Anyone can see that.”

“So why aren’t you helping him reach it? I thought you wanted to?”

Kageyama looked kind of adorably confused by this point, cocking his head. “I-”

“Koushi was right, what he said to you. Telling Hinata what’s wrong with him does nothing to help. Right now, Hinata’s missing one thing: someone to help him refine his language. That means you need to start working with him. Diagnose words with him. Plan attacks with him. Practice enhancing his magic. Then forget whatever level you think he should have already reached. You need to start realizing that what he can do right now is actually pretty amazing, and then use it to take him even further. That’s what a team does.”

Koushi clenched and unclenched his fists again, waiting.

And then, _finally_ : “I already think he’s amazing,” Kageyama replied simply, like it was the most apparent thing in the world. “But he can be so much better.”

Hinata’s breathy gasp was everything he’d been hoping for, and Koushi was already thinking of ways to show his Playmate just how much he appreciated him later.

Much later, because he was still on a mission.

“So what are you going to do about it? Besides just telling him to get better?”

“I… I’ll become his supporter,” Kageyama replied, an undercurrent of determination in his tone, and Koushi knew that _meant_ something to him. More than just playing the position on the field.

Granted, he didn’t have a ton of faith that the pair would be able to realize that promise on the first go, but that’s what he and Daichi were here for, and Yui and Kiyoko and Takeda.

Kageyama wanted to see Hinata reach his full potential, sure. Well, Koushi did now, too.

Daichi ruffled Kageyama’s hair. “Good. That’s all I needed to hear.”

Koushi agreed. Not wanting to tempt fate, he muted the gods’ eye and shifted away so he could face Hinata fully.

The omega was still staring enraptured at the silent screens, his wide eyes a touch glossy and his lips parted in awe, a little pink flush budding across his face.

And finally Koushi knew he’d done something right. Because it was written all over the other omega’s face: that simple acknowledgement from his Playmate had meant _everything_ to Hinata.

“See?” Koushi said. “It’s not that he doesn’t actually respect you. It’s that he doesn’t know how to express it.” Tsukishima had actually said it well, if a little too blunt – Kageyama Tobio was a gifted linguist and an awful communicator.

Hinata scoffed and rolled his eyes, but the private little grin gracing his lips hadn’t gone away. He hugged himself, seeming to try and hide his smile against his knees.

“Stupidyama’s always been bad with people,” Hinata said matter-of-factly. “That’s why it’s so good that he has me!”

Something citrusy and delighted slammed into Koushi’s senses, wafting over from both sides of Hinata’s neck, and it raised the hairs on his arms in invigoration as much as it made his heart ache. For just a few words to be so deeply moving – was Hinata not used to compliments in general or compliments from Kageyama?

(It didn’t matter, not really, not to the instincts inside Koushi that were screaming out a single thing: Karasuno or not, he was going to smother Hinata Shouyou in encouragement and affection until he left Hanadai for good.

And then he just might come back and do it some more.)

A screeching sound tore through the air, startling Koushi so badly that he jerked backwards and banged his head against the observation room wall.

“Sorry!” Hinata squeaked as he jammed a few buttons on his watch. “It’s my alarm.”

Gingerly Koushi rubbed at his throbbing skull, a little surprised that a cell watch as old and basic as Hinata’s looked even _had_ an alarm function.

“Alarm?” he asked, a little belated.

“Yeah! When I came here I set an alarm for six-thirty so I’d know to go back to the field. I’m not missing my match. I’m not missing my chance. …Even if Tobio’s being a giant jerk.”

Koushi met his eyes, then, and immediately wished he hadn’t.

Hinata’s stare was back, the one made of fire and passion and a hundred other unnamable things familiar and foreign all at once. Koushi blinked a few times to try and make the prickling at his arms go away.

It didn’t.

No, he was stuck there, frozen and unable to do anything but stare back. Because the desire he felt from this kid was truly a force of its own, something he hadn’t seen matched in a very long time.

And then he felt shame, too, mixed in with the admiration when he remembered: he’d been about to cut Hinata, last Earthday after tryouts. They all had. He and Daichi had seen those eyes when Hinata first walked out onto the field and decided that they weren’t as important as whatever Kageyama’s genius was worth.

(It had been easier to make that decision when that burning gaze was gone.

But now that he was back inside the warmth of that blaze, Koushi knew they’d been wrong.)

Except drive only went so far. Half the battle but still not a battle won.

Gods, if only they could find some way to combine Hinata and Kageyama – they were foils, balances. Strong where the other was weak. But at this point the plans he’d made for them over the weekend probably wouldn’t work anymore, knowing what he knew now.

They’d just have to get through today together, Koushi decided, and then they’d all go from there.

As a team.

He stood, waiting for Hinata to re-lace his dueling boots and adjust his padding.

“Ready to go?”

Hinata beamed, not dampened at all by his nose that was still a little red and his cheeks that still sported dried tear tracks. That smile jolted through Koushi like he’d touched a live wire, and it was clear: Hinata was back. Everything bright and brilliant and burning all packed into one tiny human. Koushi found himself stepping closer, just to be a part of it all.

“Ready to win.”

*

Dread was the only thing Tobio could feel when he spotted his Playmate coming back to center field, Suga beside him.

Until he caught sight of Shouyou’s face, and instead of tears, or hate, or that awful hurt, he looked… excited?

The relief that flooded his system was so heavy he thought he might collapse, stuck to the ground under its weight. But in a good way. He’d never say it out loud, but this was far better than how Shouyou had left the clearing, and gods, he’d take it.

Whatever Suga had said to his Playmate must’ve really worked, since the redhead was back to his usual energetic, obnoxiously bright self, jumping up and down and beaming his best wide grin. He wasn’t faking it, Tobio could tell – that happiness was real, and the urge to ask Suga how he’d done it _burned_.

He’d have to do it later, though, considering the pointed stare Suga was giving him at the moment. Tobio knew his time was up.

He stepped towards the pair, feeling a little bit like he was walking to his death.

“Shouyou,” he started after a moment, cursing the way it came out too harsh. Instead of looking defensive, though, Shouyou’s face was twisted up in a tiny little grin. Like he knew something Tobio didn’t.

That look never meant anything good.

“Yeah?” prompted the omega, a sparkle in his eyes that said he was enjoying this. Tobio’s jaw clenched.

“I…”

“…You?”

He wanted to growl in frustration.

“I’m s-…” he tried again, baring his teeth when the single stupid sentence wouldn’t come out. His tongue felt glued to the roof of his mouth, unable to move and form the right sounds.

(Gods, he was a _duelist_. He should be able to say one stupid little word.)

“S-S… Sa- Shor- Shi-”

Shouyou puffed out his cheeks.

“Are you trying to call me shitty again?”

That was it. “I’m trying to apologize, you _dumbass_!”

They stared at each other, wide-eyed and silent, until a little snort escaped past Shouyou’s lips. Then another, and another, and soon he was doubled over and full-belly laughing in a way that really pissed Tobio off.

(But it was still much better than the look of betrayal, of shock and pain that he’d given Tobio earlier.

Much, _much_ better.)

“Well you really suck at it!” his Playmate said in between giggles: practically an invitation for Tobio to grab at his hair.

“S-Stop that, Stupidyama,” the omega continued to laugh as he swatted at Tobio’s hold. “I’m gonna go bald! I’m sorry, ok?”

Tobio released his grip, letting Shouyou scamper away to a safe distance with his hair intact.

“See?” Shouyou grinned. “Apologizing is super easy. I just did it.”

“…S-Sorry,” Tobio muttered, staring at the grass beneath his dueling boots.

Shouyou hopped right back into his space, poking at his chest.

“Apology accepted, as long as you stay my supporter while we’re on the same team! You have to enhance my magic the most!” the omega cried, and the knot that had been growing in Tobio’s chest for the last half hour finally eased. Until Shouyou’s face fell, and something in it turned just a little bit too vulnerable. “Just… don’t yell at me like that again, ok? If you want me to change something, just say so. And then help me. But my lexicon isn’t gonna grow in the next hour.”

Well, there was the knot again.

And those words, too. _Help me_.

_Help him_.

It was Tobio’s job as a supporter. In a real dueling match, supporters were limited in the number of times they could emit their own magic. Most of the time they were enhancing their teammate’s attacks, guiding them. Giving them power boosts. Helping them.

So why was everything so much harder when it came to Shouyou?

_You’re toughest on him because you care, right?_ came the echo of Suga’s voice in his mind.

He shoved the thought away even as he knew it was true. Tobio _did_ care. He cared very much about the prospect of having Shouyou as a true rival one day. Gods, he _wanted_ it. Wanted to see Shouyou at his peak one day, facing him down on the field.

“Alright!” Daichi cried, clapping his hands together and addressing everyone who was gathered there. “Let’s warm up for a few minutes then get the match started. The rules of this hybrid game will be regulation but with half the field and half the players: Tanaka and Hinata with Kageyama playing support versus Tsukishima supporting Yamaguchi and me.”

Shouyou tripped over nothing, falling into Tobio.

“Eh? We’re actually facing _you_ , captain? I thought Hitoka would be their third!”

Tobio silently agreed with his Playmate, feeling himself start to sweat. He could still win, of course, but talent didn’t always make up for experience.

Their victory would take more effort than he thought.

“Ah, don’t worry too much,” Daichi said. “Tanaka’s actually got a higher power baseline than I do. He’s a better attacker.”

Tanaka clicked his tongue, leaning in close towards his impromptu teammates. “Don’t be fooled. Daichi’s lexicon’s way bigger than mine.”

Daichi ignored him.

“Anyway,” the captain continued, “our gear isn’t smart tech so we work on an honor system when it comes to tagging. You get non-magically touched anywhere but the hands, feet, or head, and you’re jailed. Your teammates have to tag you to get you out. Oh, and no magic to retrieve or transport the flag. You have to use your body to carry it to your side of the field. Any questions?”

The freshmen shook their heads and followed the upperclassmen to their sides of the field. Tanaka showed them the important parts of their playing field as they walked – home base, the edges of their side, and the little jail situated near the back, a square zone outlined by a set of orange poles.

“You two ready to grind them into dust?” the upperclassman asked once they finished their warmup stretches.

Shouyou shot to his feet, fists in the air. “Heck yeah!”

“Teams have five minutes to hide their flags,” someone’s voice thundered all around them over speakers, echoing through the trees.

“Chikara’s playing ref from the observation room,” Tanaka said, leaning in close to them and covering his mouth. “He’s a hardass when it comes to the rules, almost as much as Daichi, so don’t break ’em. Whole team’s watching on the gods’ eye.”

“ _Tanaka,”_ boomed the speakers, causing the alpha to jerk guiltily.

Shouyou was spinning around, looking for cameras and waving happily in all directions, so Tobio grabbed him to make him focus.

“You have a plan for our flag?” he asked Tanaka, gripping Shouyou tighter when he wiggled. The other alpha jerked his thumb towards his chest.

“Please, you’re looking at Karasuno’s champion flag-hider. Your little friends don’t stand a chance against me!” He gave them an aggressive salute before jogging deeper into the trees, two sets of eyes on his back.

“So _cool_!” Shouyou whispered, finally wiggling free from his Playmate. Something about his tone grated against Tobio’s ears, made him want to scrub it away.

“Oi, do you need to scent?” he asked instead, satisfied when Shouyou’s enthusiastic attention turned fully to him.

“Nope! My stomach’s ok now. Let’s hurry up and win, yeah?” he said.

“Of course,” Tobio replied, adding an eye-roll for good measure.

The only question at this point was how long it would take them, not whether or not they would win. Tobio had watched Tsukishima and Yamaguchi play for years, memorizing their primary words and go-to attacks. Even with Daichi thrown into the mix, they didn’t stand a chance.

“Uh. Maybe just to be safe, though?” Shouyou’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to his sheepish Playmate. Shouyou cheered when Tobio tilted his head for access, pulling the alpha down and rubbing their necks together with vigor. It shouldn’t have been comfortable at all and yet it was, causing something tense inside his body to unwind with each slide of skin against skin.

“The fuck? I was gone for two minutes, tops!” a voice from behind them screeched. Shouyou immediately pulled away, flushed and a little guilty-looking even though they weren’t doing anything wrong.

“ _Ryuu_! Language!” the speakers thundered in a distinctly feminine voice. Michimiya, maybe.

Tanaka turned to face one of the pine trees and pointed at the two of them. “Oi, tell them to stop sullying the field! This is a sacred place!”

“Flags are hidden. The match will start in ten seconds,” Ennoshita said across the field instead, apparently at the mic again.

Tanaka clicked his tongue. “You two better focus.”

It wouldn’t be a problem – Shouyou was already wearing his game face and evoking his magic, gearing up to go. And Tobio, well. He was always ready to duel.

“Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Go!”

They ran.

“Where should we look first?” Shouyou said as he sprinted beside him. They’d passed the center line, now solidly in enemy territory. It put him on edge in a good way, making sure to keep an eye out for any strange movements that could be their opponents hiding in wait.

“Let’s sweep the perimeter then head inward. They’ll probably have a guard or two, so once we spot someone we’re probably getting close.”

“Is that so, king?”

Tobio stopped them in their tracks, throwing out an arm in front of Shouyou. Tsukishima sat nonchalantly on top of a boulder, resting his head in his hand like he was bored. And an asshole.

“ _Don’t call me that_ ,” he growled, low in his throat and dangerous. He wasn’t in the mood for games, not when he had a team to prove himself to.

“It’s obvious you two are going to win, of course,” a voice came from their left, and Tobio jerked to the right to see a second Tsukishima advancing on them. And then a third copy from behind, snidely adding “There’s just only so much that commoners like us can do against natural talent, isn’t there?”

A fourth Tsukishima completed the circle straight from hell around them, smirking so irritatingly that Tobio was almost positive it was the real one. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to make it easy for you, of course. Because that’s what you were thinking, right? That this would be an easy win?”

The two Playmates spun so they were back-to-back, each keeping an eye on at least two of Tsukishima’s copies. Until they figured out which one was physically real, all of them were equally dangerous.

(Gods, he hated Tsukishima and his stupid mind magic.)

Tsukishima and his mind games alone wouldn’t be a problem, most likely. His true strength was nullification, plus he didn’t like getting his hands dirty, so Tobio doubted he’d chase them across the field if they ran.

Except Tsukishima probably wasn’t alone.

“Watch out for Yamaguchi,” Tobio murmured to his teammate. Those two were attached at the hip everywhere, field included. Any trees or bushes or boulders could be concealing the beta, ready to jump out and tag them.

Something must have showed on his face, since at least three of the blondes around them snorted.

“Getting scared, king? Good. Yamaguchi, now!”

A movement blurred towards him from the corner of his eye and he didn’t think, just reacted.

_:Circle Shouyou with energy, one inch thick and six feet tall. Allow him a five-foot diameter of movement:_

_:Of course, child:_

The transparent shield of energy sparked to life just in time, forcing Yamaguchi to jerk away from Shouyou or risk running into it. Tobio exhaled, relieved that he didn’t have to rescue his teammate from jail now, too; the omega had spun around just a touch too late to see Yamaguchi running at him. He poked at the blue shine surrounding him, nodding to Tobio in thanks.

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said, frowning when not a single blonde replied, not even to tell him to shut up like usual.

“Using your free-emittance so early?” one of the Tsukishima’s clicked his tongue towards Tobio instead. “You’d better watch out. Only four speech acts left.”

“That’s more than you have,” Tobio replied, because from what he could tell Tsukishima was actively maintaining a separate lifelike illusion for him and Shouyou both.

Not only was he using up his allotted emittance, it had to be taxing as hell. Mind magic was versatile and crazy powerful, but that meant it came at an insane price. By this point he probably had less than a minute left before he couldn’t hold the illusions anymore. That was when they’d strike.

Yamaguchi crept backwards to join the Tsukishimas around them, letting Tobio drop the circle around his Playmate. Staying vigilant, Shouyou dropped into his stance at Tobio’s back again.

“How much longer do you think he can hold it?”

“Not long,” Tobio answered.

“Why wait, though?” asked his Playmate, shooting him an impatient glance. Fair question, Tobio thought… not that he’d say that out loud. With most of his speech acts left, there could be six real, flesh-and-blood Tsukishimas and they’d still be okay. Over-caution against a three-man team was pointless.

“Fine. We’ll use your utterance from earlier,” he murmured loud enough for Shouyou to hear. “‘Earth around him high go.’ Start with the one on your right, and circle around. I’ll match you as you go.”

“ _Finally_ ,” Shouyou breathed out, cracking his knuckles and taking up his stance. Tobio watched him like a hawk, eyes tracing over lean and lithe muscles for any hint of movement.

Magical enhancement, like nullification, had one major drawback: the enhancer had to repeat the original user’s utterance precisely before they could add any of their own magic as a boost. If Tobio didn’t capture all of Shouyou’s words perfectly, moving through the gestures exactly as Shouyou did, his own magic would have nothing to attach to.

Luckily the omega followed the plan, shooting off his first emittance with rapid movements and no warning, and then another, and another. The ground around them shook with the force of earth shooting forwards and up, doing its best to follow Shouyou’s commands.

Tobio followed the words like a pro. He planted his foot in the ground and rolled through the rest of the gestures in time with the omega, almost as if they were dancing in sync. And with every mimicked attack he felt it, felt his own power attaching to the emittance, ready to bend to his will. So bend them he did.

_:Form a circle ten feet in diameter:_ , to one. _:Grow the walls thicker by two feet:_ to another.

Over and over he perfected the flaws in Shouyou’s magic, adjusting and powering up and controlling until three of the Tsukishimas were long gone inside concentric prisons made of earth.

For the most part it worked, even causing Yamaguchi to disappear behind his own dirt walls, until they turned as one to the very last blonde.

Shouyou went through the phrase one more time alongside Tobio.

Alongside Tsukishima, too, who followed them and added three simple words out loud: “ _Shut it down_.”

Gods, even his nullification command was irritating.

The magic stirring under Tobio’s feet evaporated in an instant, leaving him feeling empty and unfulfilled. His bared teeth only succeeded in making the blonde laugh.

“Surprised? You’re not the only one who watched him practice, king,” Tsukishima said with that godsdamned smirk. It was irritating in a different way than Shouyou’s – much more hittable. Even more so when he stalked forward far too casually for the situation. Telling them loud and clear: _I don’t see you as a threat_.

Even Shouyou growled at his carefree advance, definitely pissed off that he’d been stopped.

“‘Earth around him high go,’ right?” Tsukishima continued, grinning when Shouyou’s jaw fell. “I’ll admit it took me a while to figure out his particle for movement, that little twitch of the abs. Almost unnoticeable.”

“I swear I’ve never shown him my language logs,” Shouyou whispered angrily, looking even more irritated than Tobio felt.

“Knock them all down,” Tobio ordered, gesturing to the four earth walls. “We need to make sure he’s the real one.”

Shouyou quickly obeyed, moving his body through the pretty basic command of “Earth walls down fall”. It worked well enough, starting as a tremor beneath them and surging through the ground until the dirt barriers all around them shook and crumbled into dust.

Not bad.

He was about to tense up again, readying himself for another head-to-head showdown when he realized: there was no one there anymore, not even the Tsukishima who’d been coming towards them. No blondes or brunettes to be found. Just piles of useless dirt.

He could feel his face twist into a scowl.

“Eh? They were _all_ illusions?” Shouyou grumbled, sounding more than a little betrayed. “Curse you, Tsukishima.”

Tobio nodded in agreement. Curse Tsukishima indeed.

“And here I thought Kageyama was the cruel one, Hinata,” a haughty voice called from above them revealing yet _another_ Tsukishima – this one sitting in a tree. He hopped down as the two Playmates jumped backwards.

Tobio grabbed Shouyou’s shoulder. “Switch your utterance to-”

“Ten minutes left,” Ennoshita interrupted over the speakers.

Shouyou spun to face him, light brown eyes sharpening with panic. “Tobio, we need to look for the flag.”

“We’ll make a run for it. Circle around him and meet me on the other side, _now_!”

He darted to his left, giving Tsukishima a wide berth and a watchful eye as he ran. The blonde only grinned, letting them go far too easily. Which definitely meant they were running into a trap, but at this point there wasn’t much else they could do.

Without the flag, they couldn’t win.

Couldn’t join Karasuno. And that simply wasn’t an option.

“Keep searching,” ordered Tobio when he met back up with the redhead. They ran deeper into the enemy side, stopping when something tugged on Tobio’s sleeve.

“Tobio, over there!” Shouyou cried, pointing in what he probably thought was a subtle way towards one of the trees at their left. There, in a branch about halfway up, was a tiny bundle of bright red cloth.

And in between them and the tree stood all three members of the other team.

“Think they’re real this time?” Shouyou asked warily.

“Have to be. Tsukishima’s definitely not strong enough to pull that twice in one match. He’s got to be near his limit already.”

“Pause the match,” Ennoshita’s voice boomed across the field, causing Tobio to freeze. “Suga’s called a timeout. Each team, report back to your home base. You have five minutes once you arrive.”

“Hah?” Shouyou said, looking around. “Why’d he call time?”

Tobio shrugged, turning to jog towards the meeting spot with the sound of Shouyou’s footsteps following him.

Suga and Tanaka were already there waiting for them, arms crossed and frowning enough for Tobio to start feeling concerned.

“You need a new strategy,” the vice-captain said bluntly.

Oh. Tobio actually agreed – they weren’t doing badly by any measure, but it felt like they were going too slow. At this rate they’d be going into overtime.

“What do you mean?” asked Shouyou, just a tiny bit of hurt in his tone. “What’s wrong with what we were doing?”

Suga hurried to wave his hands in denial. “Nothing was _wrong_ , exactly. More like… like it wasn’t enough? As soon as the timeout ends you’ll be facing all three of them again, and I don’t think just making barriers like that is going to work. Especially since Tsukishima already caught onto your utterance.”

A high-pitched whistle came from Tanaka. “You’re up against Daichi after this? Ha, good luck countering his defense. It’s scary how good he is when he gets serious.”

Tsukishima too, when he actually decided to put in any effort at all, although he was heavily limited by his choice to play supporter. Daichi could be an issue if he was as good as Tanaka was making him sound, though.

Tobio could actually hear Shouyou gulp beside him.

“What’s the plan, then?” Tanaka said, turning to the vice-captain. “I can’t see a damn thing from where I’m at.”

Suga pursed his lips. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that a normal supporter relies just as much on his emitter as the emitter relies on him. They usually contribute equal amounts of power and precision. But… you can’t really do that here? I guess? I mean, Shouyou’s not really able to reciprocate what you put in.”

“Obviously. But I can’t just not enhance his attacks. You told me to use him.”

Koushi pursed his lips.

“You’re not wrong, it’s just- well, you’re not… not using him effectively, I guess. Like, you’re not… playing to his strengths? You’re trying to play to yours, but it’s- it’s not…”

Tanaka raised a fist in the background. “Suga, fight!”

The omega swallowed as if that could help him gather his thoughts. Maybe it could, though, since he seemed to steel himself after a moment and looked Tobio straight on.

“You’re treating Hinata like he’s a normal university-level duelist, one with a known lexicon in the Class 2 or 3 range. But he’s not. You’re trying to have him meet you halfway, giving you a fully formed attack that you boost with your own power. But he can’t, not right now. You need to find a different way to use him as his supporter, because the normal way just doesn’t use either of your strengths. I hate to say it, but you’re not using him to his full potential.”

Tobio startled, something cold sinking in his gut.

_Impossible_ , was his first reaction. …But was it? Maybe not, as the echo of an old conversation rose to the front of his mind.

_The best supporter isn’t the strongest, Kageyama._

_The best supporter is the one who brings out the best in his team._

_Oikawa’s true strength is his ability to bring out one hundred percent of whoever he supports. No matter how talented you are, you’ll never be as good as him if you can’t do the same._

Tobio looked at Suga a long time, staring without really seeing. His mind was far away, on different fields, thinking about all the magic he’d ever seen Shouyou use. And his gut was sinking further and further with each memory that came to light, because it was clear as day lined up like that. Shouyou could be even faster, even stronger than he’d been playing today.

And Tobio could draw it out. (Just like Oikawa would.)

But. How?

_:Don’t use his attacks, child:_ his magic spoke up, startling him again. _:Use your mate’s_ magic _:_

Ah.

“Ah,” he echoed out loud, causing Suga to pause and glance at him in surprise. “I get it.”

“O-Oh! You do?” Suga asked, smiling easily. “That’s great.”

Tobio nodded, then grabbed both of Shouyou’s shoulders to make sure the omega’s attention was fully on him.

“Your precision is shitty,” he began, wincing when Shouyou smacked him on the side.

“Oi!”

“And your lexicon is next to worthless.”

“ _Oi_!”

“But Suga’s right. Your baseline makes you powerful. And you’re fast. Even as a gestural magic-user you emit faster than anyone with a verbal language that I’ve ever met.”

Shouyou paused in his effort to whack Tobio as many times as possible, turning a bright pink and scratching the back of his neck. A dumb, weirdly endearing smile took over his face, one that annoyed Tobio and made him want to kiss it away all at once.

“Oh, well. I’m not a genius or anything,” denied Shouyou to exactly nobody.

“No one said that,” came Tanaka’s voice from behind them. Shouyou paid him no mind, still grinning that dumb grin.

“These are your strengths,” Tobio continued confidently, “and I’m going to use them. Not your attacks. Your magic.”

“Not his attacks? What does that even mean?” Tanaka spoke up again in a whisper, drawing out a pained “I have no idea” from his vice-captain.

Shouyou nodded, determination overtaking his eyes. They weren’t quite _those_ eyes, yet, but they meant he was serious. He was ready to win.

“Got it,” he affirmed.

“ _How_?” Tanaka cried. They ignored him, again.

“Good,” Tobio said, grabbing his Playmate’s collar and pulling him down into a huddle. “When the timeout’s over, we’re going to run. I’ll give the signal and you emit as many earth attacks as you can, one hundred percent of your speed and power channeled towards the utterance ‘earth.’ I’ll take care of it from there.”

“I’m on it,” Shouyou agreed, so easily. Just like always.

And it lit up through Tobio then, the tingly thrill of receiving that complete and total trust. How Shouyou did it, how he could so willingly put his faith in Tobio when everything he’d dreamed of was on the line, the alpha didn’t understand. Especially after the things Tobio had said to him before the match.

But the stare Shouyou gave him just then was nothing _but_ trust, eyes brown and wide and full of conviction so fierce that it made Tobio’s breath catch. Without thinking about what that meant, he nudged the omega forward and positioned them both to sprint.

“The timeout is ending in fifteen,” Ennoshita’s voice boomed across the field, forcing Suga to scramble towards the sidelines.

“Ten.”

Tobio shared a look with Shouyou, quick and full of everything he needed to see.

“Five.”

There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that he could do this. If he could bring out the best in anyone, it was Shouyou. His Playmate, his teammate, and the person whose magic he knew best next to his own.

He wasn’t giving up on that blurry vision of facing the redhead on the Heaven Stage, not just yet. And Tobio was going to be the one to raise Shouyou to that level. Now that he had direction, now that he understood what to do.

They were going to _win_.

“One.”

He tensed his muscles to spring, watching Shouyou do the same.

“ _Go.”_

They sprinted, Shouyou keeping pace with him at his side until they were at the spot they’d seen the flag. Just like before, all three opponents stood in wait. But this time it was different.

This time Tobio knew exactly what to do, could see the whole scenario playing out in his head.

_:Create an opaque energy shield, thirty feet high and sixty wide. Hide us:_ he began before the other team could react. The force needed to create it took his breath away for a moment, but it was worth it. He didn’t want Tsukishima to see what they were up to. Not yet.

A darkened wall of magic rose up, blocking their view of the others.

Perfect.

“Shouyou, emit,” he ordered, focusing on his Playmate so he could copy every successive word Shouyou decided to gesture with perfect accuracy.

He felt the difference immediately, as soon as Shouyou started to move.

Without any restrictions Shouyou was even faster, emitting freer and so quickly that he almost seemed limitless. “ _Earth_ ” after “ _Earth_ ” he said in his own language with his right foot planting into the ground, until it seemed like he’d surely run out of energy on the next word, and then he’d do it once more. Each word burst out a new wave of power beneath the ground, thick and trembling and ready to shake the world.

Like this Shouyou was _free_.

Somehow Tobio managed to keep up with the rapid-fire gesture, falling into a pattern and matching Shouyou’s pace as his leg muscles started to ache in protest.

One by one Tobio captured each bit of magic for himself, heart pounding at the heady rush that every new burst brought. Gods, Shouyou had to be putting some serious energy into his words for it to feel like _that_. The strain on the alpha’s body burned in the best way, like his muscles after a particularly hard day at the gym.

Tobio could feel the magic accepting his control, growing in front of him and waiting to be enhanced.

And instead of enhancing Shouyou’s “attacks”, he told the magic to _:Wait:_. Grew his stockpile of usable power until Daichi and the others finally appeared at the sides the wall he’d erected, and it was time.

“It’s enough,” he told his Playmate, who finally slowed and turned to him, only to rear back in surprise.

“T-Tobio, you look… _whoa_ ,” the omega stuttered, trying and failing to convey something with wildly waving hands. Tobio must not have looked too bad, though, since the glint in Shouyou’s eyes was getting dangerously close to bedroom territory.

“Focus, dumbass,” he hissed. They _really_ didn’t have time for that. Later for sure, obviously. But not while dueling.

Shouyou shook his head. “Oi, I _am_ focused! But it’s hard when you’re like _that_! Just attack already!”

Tobio would have to interpret whatever that meant later. He dropped the wall, focusing only on the earth energy he’d taken from his Playmate.

And then he let it loose.

Gave the power his own commands, whatever he wanted. For the most part he stuck to their original plan, the reverse moats, or whatever Shouyou had called it. Trapping the other players inside earth prisons. Simple but effective when he had this much power at his fingertips.

It turned out that Daichi _was_ as good as Tanaka had said, breaking out free almost as quickly as Tobio trapped him and looking less and less composed each time. So Tobio built the walls higher and thicker more densely, until he wasn’t even sure where Daichi was anymore, buried somewhere in a maze of earthen walls.

And in the end, none of their opponents stood a chance, running out of energy to fight back and break out of captivity. Tobio wiped sweat from his brow, breathing hard but still rearing to go.

This. This was _dueling_.

“Now!” he shouted at his Playmate, who sprinted towards the tree where they’d seen the flag and climbed it like he belonged up there.

It was over very quickly, after that. Shouyou hopped down and raced back towards their home base with the alpha at his side, leaping over the boundary line in a jump so high that it felt like he was soaring over Tobio’s head.

There was a moment, there, with Shouyou’s head thrown back in the air and his hands raised towards the sky and his hair lit up like a halo in the morning sun, that burned into the back of Tobio’s eyes – he knew exactly what the omega was feeling, because he felt the same rush. His blood pounding and body shaking from exertion and the thrill of the victory.

It was something he felt every time he won, but something today was different. Better.

“M-Match,” Ennoshita’s shocked voice echoed out through the trees when they’d both stepped foot on their side. “Victory for Team Tanaka!”

Shouyou spun on him instantly.

“Tobio! Tobio, we did it! We won! Tobio, we get to join Karasuno!”

Tobio easily caught the omega as he jumped into his arms, grabbing at the alpha’s face as if he was worried he didn’t have the Tobio’s full attention at the moment. Which was a stupid thought, because Shouyou was the only thing he could see just then, all flushed skin basking in the sunny glow of victory and practically vibrating with happiness.

“Tobio! We get to keep dueling. For _Karasuno_ ,” he repeated, moving his head down to happily nuzzle into Tobio’s neck. It felt so good he almost dropped his Playmate, tightening his grip and locking his legs at the last second.

Because Shouyou was right: they’d made it. They’d made it onto Karasuno and Tobio had never felt so alive, not like when he’d enhanced Shouyou’s magic like that. Not like when their attack succeeded. Not like when it allowed them to win.

Gods, Tobio was _alive_.

“Oi, what the hell was _that?”_ Tanaka yelped, running over to them with Suga on his heels. “I could see the walls from our side! You better not get us fined for fucking up the field!”

“That- that was _incredible_ ,” Suga breathed, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. “Use his magic, not his attacks – I get it now. You had him give you a non-specific utterance that was mostly power, not really a speech act. That way he doesn’t _need_ any other words, and you can capitalize on his speed and strength while shaping the attack yourself.”

A strangled choking nose came from the back of Tanaka’s throat. “Isn’t that, like, stupid dangerous?” he gaped. “You two are gonna kill someone pulling that shit!”

It was a fair concern, Tobio thought. The less specific magical speech acts were, the more unpredictable they became. Given enough force, someone correctly saying “Earth, move” could, in theory, shoot a pebble forward just as much as they could cause an earthquake – magic could take whatever shape it decided without any further parameters.

Fortunately, most people were more on the pebble side of things. They didn’t have the power baseline or the stamina to emit such an imprecise command with any kind of force behind it. Only someone extra powerful could use vagueness as an asset.

Shouyou, when he wanted to be, was someone extra powerful.

“They won’t,” Daichi countered, brown eyes as awed as his Playmate’s when he appeared near center field. He had an arm thrown over Michimiya’s back for support as she half-dragged him along, and Tobio was glad he didn’t have to worry about going back to free everyone.

“You couldn’t see it from where you were, Tanaka,” continued Daichi a little breathily, “but watch the replay from the recording. Kageyama’s matching Hinata’s speed. He’s catching all the magic before it can form into anything dangerous. And then he’s using it however he wants.”

Suga shook his head slowly. “Gods. Instead of splitting them half and half, Hinata gives all the power, Kageyama gives all the control, and they both match each other’s speed so it’s safe. It’s… _genius_.”

Exactly.

It had worked even better than Tobio had hoped for. They had been perfect together, Shouyou acting as an endless power supply for him to do with as he pleased.

And that had only been earth magic. If they could translate the move to nature power, or energy power, or void or even mind? They were going to be _invincible_ together.

“Oi! Did you two know they could do that?” Tanaka yelped towards the vice-captain, giving him a good shake.

“Gods no,” Suga said with a laugh. “I could just see that the way they were going about it was slowing them down.”

Daichi shrugged. “I was just hoping for their skills to add to each other, not…”

“Multiply?” Suga offered.

Daichi nodded.

Tanaka gulped.

“That was amazing!” cried out Hitoka as she neared the group, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi at her sides. Clearly she’d helped get them out, with her practice clothes covered in dirt and dust. The rest of the team caught up too, swatting Tanaka and Shouyou on the back when they passed and giving their congratulations.

Tobio looked away, surprised when a sting spread across his own shoulder blades.

“Good game,” Ennoshita told him with a grin. “That was something else, Kageyama.”

“Excuse me!” Michimiya called, holding a box that Tobio hadn’t noticed before. Ripping it open a little violently, she grabbed five black jackets and handed one to each freshman. “Let’s get business out of the way. A deal’s a deal, and clearly you two are going to be able to work together in a match. So let me officially welcome you to the team!”

Cheers rose up all around, followed by good-natured joking and jeering and celebrating, and it felt… _nice_. Being part of a team that wasn’t openly hostile to him was nice. The tingle on his back from Ennoshita’s palm was nice. And each time Shouyou caught his eyes and beamed at him felt _extra_ nice. He caught himself drifting towards the omega, fighting the urge to tell him to get back on the field and go again.

And Shouyou seemed to be feeling it too, keeping Tobio close. Calling to him and touching him and catching his eye, making sure he could see him every time he erupted into that damn smile, knowing they were thinking the same thing.

About how good victory had felt.

The rest of the practice seemed to pass in a buzz. Everything else melted away – the basic drills, the laps, the huddle that finally ended the practice. Tobio remembered all of it and none of it, itching for his next chance to face someone down on the field. Running through all the ways he could use Shouyou as a weapon, could bring out the omega’s true potential. It was all so obvious – _how had they never done this before?_ – and yet so new, and he _needed_ , _needed_ , _needed_.

Without thinking about it, he leaned into Shouyou’s neck as the captain dismissed them all, breathing in deeply and pulling the omega’s back tight against his chest.

“Oi, get a room you two!” Mao called, while Noya and Tanaka started to whistle suggestively. 

The Playmates shared a glance, understanding sparking through their eyes. A room sounded like an excellent idea, just then. Luckily it was something they had.

“Let’s go,” Shouyou breathed out, grabbing Tobio’s arm and tugging him towards their dorm.

*

The moment Shouyou dragged his Playmate through the door Tobio was on him, pushing him against the wall and touching him in the very best ways. The alpha settled into what Shouyou knew was his favorite spot: flush against Shouyou’s body, grinding into him and running his hands all over and biting at his neck.

It was good, so good, and it was almost too much. Shouyou was _too_ happy, if that was a thing, too filled with emotions that he couldn’t even name anymore.

Because they’d won, together, and now they’d get to win some more. Together.

(Dueling with Tobio, winning with Tobio, had given him a rush so intoxicating it’d felt like he was flying.

He wasn’t a burden at all, anymore. He felt powerful. He felt _strong_.)

Shouyou pushed against the alpha, lifting himself up by his toes until he reached Tobio’s lips and softly pressed into them with his own. And then he pressed harder, nipping at Tobio’s permanently pouty bottom lip, trying to get him to open up. And it felt _really_ nice when the alpha did, deepening the kiss like an expert because apparently Tobio was stupidly good at everything he did.

(Well, except for math and a lot of other subjects, but those didn’t really matter in life, so it didn’t count.)

Shouyou wasn’t about to lose to him, though. No, after so long together he knew exactly what made Tobio tick – the perfect spot below the alpha’s ear to bite, where and how hard to tug his unfairly soft hair, the perfect pace to draw their tongues together and drive Tobio wild. The little breathy noises at the back of Tobio’s throat filled him a satisfaction that felt almost as good as the touching.

By that point Shouyou could’ve happily stayed like that forever, except for the little tiny problem that was their height difference and the strain he was starting to feel in his neck. And sometimes he was pretty sure Tobio could actually read his mind, because just then the alpha started tugging him towards the bed, falling backwards with a bounce and letting Shouyou crawl on top of him.

He leaned down, kissing Tobio quickly then slowly then quickly again, moving his lips against the alpha’s sweetly and gently then rough and wet. He loved any kind of kiss with Tobio, loved the way he felt the pleasure pulse through his whole body, right down to the tips of his curling toes.

“Tobio,” he breathed onto the alpha’s lips, “we can win like this.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to be the best at Hanadai.”

“Yeah.”

“The best in the country. We’ll take nationals.”

Tobio suddenly flipped them over, slotting himself over Shouyou’s body and leaning in so that their foreheads touched. All Shouyou could see in that moment was the alpha’s eyes, blue and bright and wide, and so, so serious.

Shouyou had seen them before, on his own face colored amber brown. He knew those eyes.

They meant magic and they meant dueling. They meant victory.

“Intra-university, regionals, nationals, we’re going to win them all,” Tobio promised, nothing but truth in his voice and his stare. Shouyou believed him one-hundred percent, even more so when the alpha smiled. Small, but it was there and it meant everything.

“With me, you’re invincible.”

A warmth lit up inside Shouyou like he’d never known, and he was sure it was showing on his face and in his eyes and probably through his skin, too, because it was everywhere. And it was perfect.

“Tobio,” he said again, wanting to get it out before the pleasure took over and he couldn’t say anything anymore. “We’re going to the Heaven Stage.”

 

***

 

Tobio woke up to the feeling of their bed shaking in the dark, something he wasn’t very used to unless he and Shouyou were causing it together.

Still hazy from sleep, he rolled over and lazily patted around for Shouyou’s form, only to panic when Shouyou let out a pained wheezed at the contact and continued his fevered trembling.

Shit.

At least Tobio was wide awake, now, as his blood started to pound. He sat up as gently as he could, looking over towards the infoscreen next to their door. _August 29_ , _5:56 a.m.,_ it read. The end of the month. He should’ve been ready for this. Gods, Daichi had even mentioned it, but he’d been too focused on the damn practice match and securing their spot on the team.

Trying not to jostle the bed – not that Shouyou would probably even notice, at this point, he looked so far gone – he slipped out of bed and hurried into their bathroom, sifting through their pile of medication in a basket under the counter.

Sleeping pills, no. Fever meds, no. Bandages and antibacterial cream, no. Dammit. Where was the-

Ah. He pulled out a small metal container labeled “HINATA, S. KO DIS-O2, 6 MO. SUPPLY.”

Tobio padded back into the main room and turned on a low-power lamp, feeling his face twist into a grimace at the sight of his Playmate in the light. Shouyou had made himself as small as possible, curled up in a ball with his knees to his chest and his eyes squeezed tight, like that could block out any of the pain. And Tobio knew he was hurting – it was clear in every short, choking breath, in every spasm of his muscles, in every whimper the omega couldn’t quite stamp down.

(Never tears, though. In all the times Tobio had seen Shouyou like this, he’d never once seen the omega cry.)

“Shouyou,” he said, more of an order than an address, trying to get the omega to look at him. “Dumbass.”

Shouyou’s eyelids didn’t budge.

With a sigh, Tobio sat on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arms around his Playmate and dragging him upright as gently as possible. Which wasn’t very gentle because Tobio wasn’t even really sure he knew _how_ to be gentle, but at least he got the omega to sit up so he could take his pills. Shouyou was shivering enough to shake both of them now, panting hard and curling over on his stomach, but it was better than choking on the meds.

Tobio grabbed two pills and unwrapped one of Shouyou’s fists, stuffing them inside.

“Eat,” he commanded. Sluggishly, the omega brought the pills to his mouth and swallowed. Tobio shoved a glass of water in front of his face next, waiting until Shouyou sipped a little.

Shouyou seemed to calm down a bit as Tobio let him lay back down in bed and bundle up under the covers, probably just from knowing that he’d be asleep soon.

Well. Tobio had done all he could, so he exhaled, running his hands through his hair.

The first time he’d found his Playmate like this, almost exactly a year after he’d signed his first contract with the omega, he’d panicked. Panicked to the point that he’d sprinted to Dr. Arita half-naked and dragged her back to their room, because Shouyou was obviously dying and he hadn’t known what to do.

(His mom would’ve _killed_ him if the Playmate he’d fought her over died in their shared bed.)

Instead of helping his dying Playmate like he’d expected, the doctor had slapped him upside the head for not reading Shouyou’s medical file in the giant folder they’d been given about each other. But she’d given him some pills that knocked the redhead out, which meant he stopped making those awful dying noises, so at least she was good for something.

(They’d both been lectured once Shouyou had recovered the next day, looking sheepish but pain-free and _alive_. Tobio had never felt so weirdly relieved.

And then he realized this would happen once every single month, and the relief had been gone.)

Blinking away the memories, Tobio wandered over to the clock, making sure to silence the morning alarm that was about to go off. Six a.m. was still pretty early, so if he let Shouyou sleep now, he could probably convince him to take a bath after practice.

Oh.

_Shit_.

Practice. Shouyou was definitely going to be pissed when he was himself again and realized he’d missed his first day as part of Karasuno. Not that they could do anything about it though, at this point. Biology was biology, and Shouyou’s was a little fucked up.

(Gods, though, that thought made him feel useless. But uselessness was a useless emotion, his mom had told him, so Tobio shoved it down as best he could.)

Shouyou must’ve realized what day it was too, since he did his best to look over at Tobio.

“Go,” he croaked out, breathy and hoarse in a way that itched to hear. It was sickly and unnatural coming from someone as vibrant as his Playmate, and Tobio hated it.

“The meds haven’t even kicked in yet, dumbass. At least let me scent your mark for a while.”

“ _Go_ ,” Shouyou repeated, softer and weaker yet the fire in his eyes burned strong. Tobio was defenseless against it in the worst way. Just like usual.

“Fine,” he growled, irritated. At what, he wasn’t sure. Not himself, and certainly not Shouyou. Whatever had caused that stupid mutation in his Playmate’s genes, probably. Yeah. That worked for the moment.

He leaned down to nose against Shouyou’s neck in a way that was comforting to them both.

“Shut up. I’ll leave in a minute,” he said, silencing the argument he could tell was fighting to get past Shouyou’s throat.

A minute turned into ten then fifteen then thirty, until the combination of medicine and instinctual comfort really started to take effect. The shivers were gone, replaced by lax muscles and a tension-free frame. Tobio finished with a few soft bites to Shouyou’s bonding mark for good measure then pulled back, satisfied at the relieved expression on the omega’s face.

Instincts, as annoying as they could be, were also pretty useful sometimes.

The omega burrowed even deeper into the bed, making sure to shoo Tobio away before covering every last inch of exposed skin under a pile of blankets.

Tobio didn’t like leaving him alone like this – the dumbass would probably find a way to croak while he was gone, and that would be inconvenient for a lot of legal reasons. Sure, his mom would take care of it, but it would be a lot of time, effort, and money that didn’t need to be spent. It was better that Tobio stay to look after him, just to save the dumbass from himself and save Tobio the trouble.

But Shouyou had told him to go.

So he headed for the shower and got ready to do just that.

*

When Tadashi saw Tobio arrive to the field late and missing one very excitable redhead, he knew something was wrong.

Well, to be fair, he’d known something was wrong as soon as Shouyou and Tobio weren’t the first ones at the field that morning, especially fresh off the high of being admitted to their dream team. He was surprised they hadn’t found a way to evade the field crews and stay all night, actually. And then he’d remembered that it was the end of the month, putting two and two together.

His good mood disappeared in an instant.

“Hey,” he said, jogging over to the harried-looking alpha. “Shouyou ok?”

Tobio nodded gruffly, somehow, not quite managing to clear his face as much as he’d probably prefer. Especially not when his eyes suddenly widened and he turned to stare at something over Tadashi’s shoulder.

Before Tadashi could even turn around he caught the bitter scent of irritation, pungent and burning at his nostrils, and his body demanded he jerk backwards to guard against the incoming threat.

Daichi and Michimiya, apparently. Their approach was deceptively calm, especially when they smelled like _that_ , and Tadashi wondered if he should start running away. They weren’t there for him, he was pretty sure, and he could probably escape if he ran right then.

Except in the face of their identical frowns he found himself unable to move. His knees were locked and his legs weren’t listening to brain and curse his stupid instincts all around – the alphas had already come too close. Tadashi was stuck.

“Kageyama,” Daichi said, stern enough for even Tadashi to jerk to attention.

Before he could say anything else, Suga – may all the gods bless Suga – popped up behind his Playmate, snapping the tension in the atmosphere with a single pat on his Playmate’s shoulder.

Tadashi could actually see the alpha relax, his shoulders sinking slightly and the tension in his neck disappearing. The burn of his scent started to fade, replaced with something that was just as bad: the sour sting of disappointment.

“You’re late. And where’s Hinata?”

Tobio took the brunt of the anger well, standing his ground in the face of two very dominant, very displeased alphas.

“His pre-heat started this morning. I was helping him until he kicked me out.”

Daichi reared back, looking supremely uncomfortable, while it was Michimiya and Suga’s turn to match. They tilted their heads in confusion, oddly in sync. (Or maybe it wasn’t so odd. They were longtime partners on the field, after all, Tadashi had learned. That kind of connection didn’t just turn on and off.)

“Are you saying he’s out due to PHS?” Suga asked. He looked more than a bit skeptical. Which was fair, because a normal person’s PHS was usually just a day of cramps and some mood swings. But Shouyou’s PHS wasn’t normal, and the captains were already supposed to know that.

Tobio stared at him. “Did that dumbass forget to include his medical file in his application?”

Shouyou definitely should’ve submitted it, Tadashi knew… not that that meant he _had_. But dueling could be a fairly dangerous sport depending on what events a person competed in. Medical histories and biannual physicals were mandatory for all teams to submit to the National Dueling Board.

All three captains shared a look, then, one that could only read as exasperation.

Suga turned back to Tobio. “No, it… it was there, technically. And we tried to read it. We really did. But it was hand-written,” he said, slipping into a pained mutter. “It was a miracle we could ready any of his application at all.”

Ah. Both freshmen nodded, because they’d been exposed to Shouyou’s handwriting for years, and neither of them had figured out how to read it yet, either.

“Shouyou’s got a condition,” Tadashi explained after a moment, because the team would need to know at some point and it didn’t seem like Tobio was going to speak up. “It affects his reproductive system. Not contagious or anything, and it’s usually pretty unnoticeable. Except for the first twenty-ish hours of his pre-heat, when it puts in in a lot of pain.”

“How bad is ‘a lot’?” Daichi ventured.

A lump lodged itself in Tadashi’s throat – he hated thinking about this, let alone explaining it.

“Um, excruciating. So bad that he can’t leave his bed at all, or even really move, usually. There’s medication he takes, but it pretty much incapacitates him. He’ll have to miss practice on his first pre-heat day each month. And Tobio will probably be late too. Oh, and if there’s ever a match on days when this happens…”

_He’ll have to miss that too_ , he didn’t add. Tadashi was pretty sure they could figure it out.

“Oh my gods,” breathed Michimiya, looking a little pale, as did her co-captain.

Panic had long since overtaken Suga’s expression. “Will he be ok? Does he need help?”

“He’ll be fine by tomorrow,” Tobio said, brusque and blunt as always. It might’ve sounded uncaring to someone else, but Tadashi could hear the trace of frustration in his tone that was different from normal. Tobio had always hated not having control. And nothing was more out of his control than trying to lessen Shouyou’s pain when he got like this.

Even so, Tadashi would hand it to the alpha – he looked after his Playmate better than some actual mates.

It only made sense to the beta, since he knew the feeling of wanting nothing more than to help. He’d been looking after Shouyou on his PHS days with Hitoka and Tsukki for years, holding him close and giving him the touch comfort he needed when they were out of class. Feeling Shouyou jerk and tremble silently against them wasn’t fun.

At _all_.

(They never went to him during club, though. If Shouyou found out they’d missed a chance to duel because of him, he’d only get upset.

Nothing, Shouyou said, was more important than dueling.

And when Tadashi searched whatever it was that filled those amber eyes, he believed him.)

“And you were late because you were taking care of him?” Daichi questioned, addressing the younger alpha. There was something much softer and approving in his tone now, enough to make the tiniest hint of jealousy stir in Tadashi’s gut. But just a bit, because Shouyou was what mattered just then, not some irrational need for his captain’s approval.

He’d been on the team for less than a week, he reminded himself. He’d have plenty of time to earn it.

Tobio nodded.

“Good,” was Daichi’s short reply, and Suga moved to affectionately ruffle Tobio’s dark hair.

By this time their little group had attracted some attention, and Hitoka and Tsukki wandered over with Asahi and a few sophomores hot on their feet, probably thinking it was a team huddle.

“Did Shouyou’s PHS start?” Hitoka asked sullenly, gulping when Tobio said yes. Tsukki only wrinkled his nose.

“Give us your semester schedule so we can work around it, king,” the blonde sighed. He could pretend it was an inconvenience all he wanted, but Tadashi knew he cuddled with Shouyou sometimes even when the redhead _wasn’t_ in his pre-heat.

(Because Shouyou would be obnoxious and pester him until he agreed, Tsukki had explained.

Except Tadashi knew Tsukki, and no one made Tsukki do what he didn’t want to do.)

It was telling that Tobio didn’t even seem to notice the nickname, and whatever was sitting in Tadashi’s throat started to sour. He wondered if it had been a particularly bad morning.

And then a bit of actual bile might’ve risen up, because Tadashi was struck by a sudden thought.

A sudden and terrifying thought.

“Say, w-which heat is it?” he choked out in a panic, a bit surprised that he was the first to voice it. Surely it had crossed all four of their minds.

Except Tobio paled very quickly as if he’d forgotten, yanking up his left arm to project his watch calendar. Tadashi’s gut tightened, as did the corner of Tsukki’s mouth. With each date Tobio desperately clicked through, a green tint worked further and further across Hitoka’s face.

The team stared.

“Double primal state,” Tobio nearly shouted, and all four freshmen sighed loudly in tandem – a sound that couldn’t be mistaken for anything but the purest form of relief. The glint sitting on Hitoka’s cheek might’ve been a grateful tear.

No one moved for a moment, only Suga and Michimiya doing a thing where they seemed to talk without talking, meeting eyes and sequencing through a series of expressions. Curiosity stood out the most.

It put Tadashi just the slightest bit on edge in the very best way as Michimiya bounced even closer to the group.

“Is this a good thing?” she asked.

Without pause, Hitoka shot her a wide-eyed and solemn “ _Yes_ ,” causing Michimiya to giggle. If anything Suga looked even more intrigued, and the anticipation spreading through Tadashi’s stomach ballooned.

Stage four of The Game.

They’d skipped three for now, but that was okay. The stages were fluid enough and Tadashi was more than ready to watch them play out in any order at all.

Besides, with the way things were looking, stage three wasn’t going to be too far behind.

“How come?” Suga asked, right on cue.

Tobio looked up at the omega, panting just a little bit like he was coming down from a danger high. Which Tadashi wouldn’t blame him for one bit; even Tsukki couldn’t make fun of him for such a warranted reaction.

“I won’t remember it,” Tobio said, and how he managed to sound so reverently grateful while emoting so little, Tadashi would never know.

When no one spoke for a moment the beta hurried to add “And they’ll be at a dynamics facility,” because that was the heart of the matter, here.

_“Thank god_ ,” Hitoka may or may not have mumbled under her breath with an endearing sincerity. Tobio must’ve heard her, since he nodded somewhat violently.

With their weird mystical connection Suga and Michimiya looked back to each other again, something unsatisfied passing between them. It was enough for Hitoka to wring her hands and try to explain.

“Um, well, you know primal states amplify certain characteristics of your normal personality, of course.”

“Of course,” parroted Michimiya and Suga, still synchronized.

“Um, so what trait of his gets amplified for Hinata?” Asahi spoke up rather timidly. Because of his nature or because of what could be taken as a somewhat sensitive subject, Tadashi wasn’t sure, but Shouyou had never considered this kind of conversation terribly private.

Actually, Tadashi was pretty sure Primal State Shouyou had been classified as a potential public health risk by someone important, somewhere. They were doing the team a favor by giving them fair warning.

_Everyone_ should be warned.

Hitoka grimaced. “Drive. It’s… it’s definitely drive.”

Now Suga and Asahi seemed to be talking from opposite ends of their huddle, looking at the other with patience and mild confusion before they turned back to Hitoka.

(Maybe telepathy was just an upperclassmen thing. Or a friend thing? Could he and Tsukki do it too one day? Tadashi sure hoped so.)

“I guess you’ll have to explain to us how that’s different from his norm,” said Suga, almost apologetically. “We’ve seen his _eyes_ , after all.”

Tadashi knew from the emphasis exactly what he was talking about. Sometimes Normal Shouyou got this look in his eyes that was the pure incarnation of intensity, so he could see how it might seem impossible to heighten it even further.

That assumption would be dead wrong.

If Normal Shouyou was a force of nature, Primal State Shouyou was something altogether indescribable.

Tsukki actually laughed at that, short but loud and definitely real. “What Yachi’s too nice to say is that Hinata in his primal state is the most manipulative, meanest little fucker you’ll ever meet.”

“ _Kei_ ,” hissed Hitoka in a rare reprimand, but Tsukki only smirked.

He pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. “I truly, genuinely pity Kageyama, if that tells you anything. Primal State Hinata will do absolutely anything to get what he wants.”

“Like cry,” Hitoka whispered towards the grass forlornly, her ire forgotten. “I can’t stand it when he cries.”

Tsukki smirked even wider. “He gets territorial if he thinks other people are too close to the king, too. One time he smelled Kageyama’s lab partner on his clothes, so he hunted her down in the dorm common area and tried to take her out. She was so terrified she transferred schools.”

“ _Take her out?_ ” someone whispered in the background, horrified.

“If you’re concerned for her, don’t be,” Tsukki continued. “She settled with the Kageyamas out of court.” _She has more money than you or I will ever see_ , _now_ , he didn’t need to add.

“That’s… not what we were concerned about,” Suga said slowly, ignoring a mutter behind him of “I think that’s exactly what I was concerned about, actually.”

Tadashi disregarded it all, his mind busy sifting through memories each more horrifying than the last.

“He set his dorm on fire once when Tobio wasn’t serving him quick enough,” he added absently, the incident sitting stark in his brain.

_That_ had been quite the experience. Tobio and Shouyou had nearly been banned from in-home heat privileges for good, only saved in the end by the alpha’s last name. Well, his last name and the new school library that went up that year, with his last name hanging right over the door.

(The Kageyamas had “donated” four buildings to Aoyama High by the time Tobio graduated, most of them after heat- and rut-related incidents.

Tadashi wondered how many buildings Hanadai would have bearing the Kageyama name before their four years here was up.

Maybe he should start a bet about that, too.)

Tadashi sighed wistfully, because rich people had all the luck. Although he considered himself pretty lucky at the moment, too, since he was spared Primal State Shouyou for another few months.

Silver linings.

Hitoka was still wringing her hands and staring with haunted eyes at the memory. “He didn’t _mean_ to set it on fire… probably?”

Tobio gave her a pained look that she dutifully ignored. Because they were all very much aware: he had definitely meant to.

Shouyou in his primal state _really_ liked fire.

“But it doesn’t matter, right?” a stress-laden voice asked, one Tadashi couldn’t identify, yet. “If he’s that uncontrollable then they’re facility-bound for every heat and rut, right? _Right_?”

Tobio watched with a blank face while the three other freshmen – even Hitoka, Tadashi noted, pleased – rolled their eyes.

“He’s a Kageyama.”

If money was king, the Kageyamas were gods.

“I don’t like going to the facility,” Tobio said, “so we only do it for dual primal state cycles.”

And yep, there it was. His complete lack of awareness that normal people didn’t just get to be _exceptions to safety regulations_. But whatever.

Although to be fair, those regulations were in place to protect the couple going through their cycle, not the surrounding populace.

But Shouyou had always been good at defying expectations, for better or worse.

Tadashi couldn’t even feel bitter, because their teammates were staring at the exchange aghast, absorbing the information with a lack of grace that was everything he’d dreamed of. Widened eyes, dropped jaws, even a shiver here and there – it was a testament to his dwindling control that he hadn’t started snickering yet. Gods though, he’d kill for a picture.

The best part was that it was just the first half of stage four. Part one was fun and all, but simply knowing about Shouyou’s primal state was one thing. _Seeing it_ was another entirely. And honestly, Tadashi wasn’t sure if he wanted to be there when they finally did.

(On one hand, it would probably be one of the funnier things he’d get to see in his lifetime.

On the other, it would mean _being in the same room as Primal State Shouyou_.

…maybe he’d leave part two alone after all.)

“O-Ok, team,” Daichi tried to rally, clapping his hands together once. “Laps! Let’s finish the lap!”

Not a single argument rose up from the team, more silent than Tadashi had ever seen the rowdy group as they broke off and jogged away.

That was it – he buried his face in Tsukki’s shoulder and let out the laughter he’d been holding in. At least until Tsukki pulled away, forcing Tadashi to chase after him.

“Thanks,” he told his best friend, trying to level the sly smile he could feel plastered all over his face. The blonde had orchestrated that beautifully, after all.

Tsukki nodded in acknowledgement, quickening his pace into a jog. Tadashi’s heart full and his frame weightless and free with laughter, he vowed to do the same in return. He’d do whatever he could to make stage three as fun for Tsukki as possible.

After all, the best part of The Game was still to come.

“Guys,” Hitoka cried out, catching up to them after a beat. “I’m so relieved!”

Tadashi snickered – more in agreement than humor, if anything – and nudged her gently as they ran.

“That gives us what, a two-month reprieve at best?” countered Tsukki a little snidely. Hitoka didn’t seem to take offense. Most things Tsukki said were a little snide.

“I’ll take whatever I’m given,” Hitoka soberly replied, and Tadashi had to nod.

They jogged in silence for a little while, passing some groups of teammates and falling behind others. The field seemed to stretch eternally in front of them the farther they ran, an endless path of grass and dirt and fallen pinecones until Tadashi was breathing just a little too hard. He was made for short bursts and not endurance, he liked to think. _Or maybe just out of shape_ , a bitter voice in his head supplied before he could shove it down.

“Dying,” is what he wheezed out to his friends, who were apparently feeling merciful enough to slow down. He was grateful; sometimes Tsukki was actually able to goad Hitoka into running on without him, leaving him sprawled out and half-dead on whatever field or gym they were in.

(At times like those, he was pretty sure whatever gods had made him develop friendship feelings towards Tsukishima Kei were all having a laugh.

He was just. _Really_ sure.)

The three of them made their way to a couple larger rocks near the sidelines, sitting to catch their breath. Well, Tadashi’s girlfriend and best friend sat. He was more doubled-over, using his knees for support with one hand and clutching at his chest with the other. One lap around a regulation-sized dueling field was about two too many, in his opinion.

Movement from the corner of his eye made him look up as he panted, watching Karasuno’s girls jogging together in a line. They hadn’t seemed to notice the trio yet, chatting and laughing and nudging each other’s shoulders while they ran.

Feeling a little bit guilty, he looked to Hitoka, who was watching the group with a wistful look on her face that pierced straight into Tadashi’s gut.

“You can run with them if you want to, you know,” he said in between deep breaths. There weren’t a lot of girls around, period, and Hitoka would probably want to make friends with the ones that were on her team. “I promise we won’t think you’re abandoning us.”

She shook her head no a little violently, surprising Tadashi. “I _can’t_.”

Tsukki turned to her with an unimpressed look. “Because?”

“I’ve forgotten all their names already,” she wailed towards the grass, missing Tuskki’s eye-roll. “We’ve been practicing with them for three days already and I’ve forgotten almost everyone’s name, and it’s too late to ask again at this point and if they realize they’ll kick me off the team and I’ll never become a duelist with you guys and I’ll fail out of my major and have to leave Hanadai and end up on the streets and-”

“Hitoka,” Tsukki said once, a little sharp, but it jerked her out of her rant. Which was pretty helpful, since Tadashi had only been rubbing at her shoulder lamely and thinking about how he definitely understood the feeling.

(He’d gone back to his dorm Earthday night and memorized everyone on the team profile for the exact same reason, ignoring Tsukki’s snickering all the while.)

Voices started reaching them from the group, distracting Hitoka from her panic. Leaning in close, Tadashi pointed out each girl as he spoke.

“Michimiya, Mao – that’s her first name, by the way, Sasaki, and Aoki,” he whispered, heart skipping a beat at the happy smile Hitoka gave him.

“Yeah,” Mao was saying when they came into earshot, her ponytail whipping back and forth almost hypnotically in time with her strides. “Knowing that they’re dating kind of puts everything in a new light. Call me crazy, but even their bickering is kind of cute, now. …In the most obnoxious way possible, somehow.”

“Right?” laughed Michimiya. “Like an old mated couple! I can’t believe we ever missed how they felt about each other. Man, I feel so stupid after watching their match yesterday. It’s like they’re magnets or something with how much they touch.”

Aoki nodded fiercely a couple times. “And I probably shouldn’t have been listening in earlier, but I heard Kageyama say he was taking care of Hinata, and that’s why he was late. They must really care for each other! It’s so sweet!”

Michimiya seemed to spot the resting group then, slowing the girls to a halt.

“Hey guys! One lap too much for you?” she said, just a bit too cheeky to be sincere as she eyed Tadashi’s hunched form.

“You’ll have to get used to it, y’know,” Mao added before they could respond, distinctly not out of breath. None of them seemed to be, actually. (Tadashi hoped _that_ was an upperclassman superpower he’d gain one day too.) “The Twin Terrors have us run one after practice too.”

Tadashi nodded, a little confused, because yeah. He’d been practicing with the team since Moonday.

“In full gear,” she continued. “Starting today now that our roster’s official.”

He could actually feel the blood slip out of his face.

“Hey, laps are Daichi’s idea, not mine,” defended Michimiya, flicking her teammate on the shoulder. The junior only smirked.

“Say, you’re friends with Kageyama and Hinata, right?” Mao suddenly asked. Hitoka nodded with a smile, ignoring Tsukki’s sneer. “Ooh, then maybe you can give us the scoop!”

Hitoka’s smile faltered. “Scoop?”

“Yeah! About Kageyama and Hinata.”

“Um…”

“Ah, if you’re worried we’ll post about it, don’t be,” Michimiya hurried to add, clearly taking Hitoka’s hesitation the wrong way. “I may have visited a few Kageyama fan blogs in the past – not _frequently_ or anything, mind you – but they’re our teammates, now. We wouldn’t break their trust like that!”

Sasaki stepped forward a little timidly.

“Um, we just had one question, really: has Kageyama asked Hinata to be his Courtmate yet? We know they’re still a few years away from aging out of the Playmate system, but still. Doesn’t hurt to be prepared, especially when they’ve been dating for so long!”

The more she talked the more Hitoka’s easy smile slipped away completely, replaced by a small frown.

“Oh, um-”

A nearly indiscernible shake of Tsukki’s head silenced the protest on Hitoka’s lips, and she nodded at him, rushing out a quick “Nope! He, uh, definitely hasn’t done that yet.”

“Oh,” Michimiya pouted, looking a little put out. “Well, maybe that means we can help him plan it when the time comes!”

A chorus of “yeah!” and “let’s do it!” rang out around her, and the girls jogged off with a few waves goodbye.

The minute they were out of view, Hitoka turned to Tsukki, an apology on her lips that the taller blonde waved away.

She clearly hadn’t meant any harm, and he’d been able to stop her in time anyway. Tadashi knew she’d be careful of what she said from now on, though. Neither of them wanted to rob Tsukki of his fun.

After all, stage three of The Game was as much Tsukki’s as it was Tadashi’s, being a prerequisite for joining The Bet and all.

And it was definitely most fun when Tobio and Shouyou explained it themselves.

 

***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the problem with devoting literally all of my spare time to writing, I’ve noticed, is that I haven’t been reading. Like, at all. It just hit me that I haven’t read a Kagehina fic since, like, last year. Goodness. When I finish this fic I think I’m gonna go back to November in the timeline and just binge it all. I’m sure I’ve missed some amazing things. D:


	5. The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so let me start off with a much-needed apology to you guys: I am *so* freaking sorry for taking so long. For one, the last five (five!!!! I’m the worst????) months have been a spectacularly rough period of my life for me, and I simply wasn’t able to write for much of it, no matter how much I wanted to. That being said, I’d still planned on posting this a few months ago, and then the flash drive I had it on got wiped. Like, everything (multiple chapters) was just gone, somehow. I genuinely cannot even express to you all how devastating that felt, and it took me a pretty long time to recreate all that I had on there. (Everything is now backed up in three separate locations now, so lesson learned.) 
> 
> I know that people were looking forward to this story, though, and I know how much is sucks when things you look forward to suddenly stop, so again, I’m just so ridiculously sorry. But you can pry this fic out of my cold dead hands, and I seriously want to assure anyone who still actually wants to read this that I will *never* (barring serious injury, death, etc.) stop writing this fic, or have another hiatus this long. Full disclosure, I’m focusing on my thesis this semester and preparing to move abroad, but I fully expect and intend to have time to devote to finishing this thing. It’s my passion project, after all.
> 
> Another apology, though: gonna be real, this chapter and next are straight up like 25k combined words of Hinata backstory/exposition. I didn’t mean to let it run away from me, and I know some people find that thing (or non-main story lines in general) super boring, so I’m sorry if you got excited to read this and then promptly disappointed. But the chapter after next (since I’m double posting) will hopefully make up for it, I’m praying. On that note, I’m double posting. Next one is all written and edited but needs one final read-through, and I'm absolutely drained rn, so I’ll post it in the morning.
> 
> To everyone who left me kind comments and supported me in the past, I want to thank you with all my heart. If you continue to read, I genuinely hope I can provide some entertainment for you. And now I leave you with: Way Too Long of a Backstory, Sorry, Whoops: Part 1.

***

_May 13th, 525 P.C. – the Past_

 

Sometimes Shouyou really wished explorers had never existed.

His fifth-year class on Post-C history was super easy, mostly because there wasn’t really a lot of it, what with the Second Dark Ages thing and all. A bunch of class time was just his teacher showing cool videos about what people thought might have happened five-hundred-ish years ago, and some of the theories were so wild and _whoa_ that he didn’t even have to try to stay awake. So yeah, Post-C history wasn’t bad. Wasn’t bad at all.

Explorers ruined everything.

Explorers had decided a few hundred years ago that just because they finally built some decent ships they should go and use them to find the old world. Which wouldn’t have been a problem except they also decided to go and bring back as much of Amerika and Nihon as they could before dying from a bunch of mysterious diseases.

And yeah, it wasn’t all terrible – it turned out the old world used to have some pretty cool stuff like books and technology and human rights, so the explorers who brought _those_ things back were pretty ok, Shouyou figured. But the nice explorers had had evil friends who brought back something much worse, too: _history_. Or at least what people could piece together of it.

That meant Shouyou was required to take _another history class_.

And Pre-C History was so long and boring that he wanted to _die_.

Every bit of it was bad, was useless and unhelpful and lame, but the absolute worst was the weird Pre-C religions. Instead of just two like normal there were more than a bazillion different ones, and exactly none of them made sense. Because they were stupid.

“Well, Hinata? Do you have an answer for me?” his teacher asked, distracting him from his much more interesting thoughts. Not the fun teacher either, because of course not. This one liked making them read and research and do other gross things that shouldn’t even be allowed in elementary schools.

Shouyou hated him more than the subject he taught.

But either way he really didn’t want to see Mr. Makido’s twisty little frown at another question answered wrong, not again. Stealthily Shouyou shot a glance to Kouji, sitting in the front row of their ugly little classroom and frantically mouthing something.

_S-Shoes…_? No, that couldn’t be right. He squinted a little, trying to watch the way Kouji’s mouth was moving without looking like he was looking, which was a lot harder than he’d expected.

He risked a few more moments, just long enough to realize that Kouji’s lip movements actually made sense, before he turned back to Mr. Makido excitedly.

“Zeus!” cried Shouyou with a grin, patting himself on the back for his own awesome lip-reading skills while shooting Kouji a thumbs-up from under his desk. His friends were the absolute _best_. Except his grin slipped away when Kouji’s only response was to let his head fall to his desk with a thud that made Shouyou wince. Not a good sign.

Mr. Makido’s shoulders slumped in time with Kouji’s head, and it gave Shouyou the familiar feeling that the beta wouldn’t be staying at their school much longer.

(Not a lot of teachers who actually liked teaching did.

He’d heard once that getting assigned here was a punishment by the central school district, but he wasn’t so sure that had anything to do with Nakamura itself. School _anywhere_ was a punishment.)

“No, that… that was two sections ago, Hinata, I- _baptism_. We’re talking about ancient baptism today. Please. Please pay attention. You- you really need it.”

Oh, yeah. Baptism, too, was stupid. Shouyou had only needed five minutes at the beginning of the lesson to figure that out, losing interest the minute “magical” lakes started being involved.

_“From what archaeologists can tell, records show that believers would dip each other in bodies of water such as lakes, arising with newfound superpowers and abilities. A new and transformed life,”_ his teacher had said.

_Well that’s dumb_ , Shouyou had thought.

What part of being dipped in a lake was going to change a person’s entire life? Lakes weren’t magical like that, Shouyou was pretty sure. Magic had nothing to do with water at all, really, unless it was nature magic. But water didn’t _cause_ magic. Words did. And everyone knew there wasn’t any magic before the Cataclysm anyway, so it was dumb no matter how he looked at it.

Lakes were just lakes. Lakes weren’t going to change anyone.

“You know what?” their teacher said suddenly. “Class can let out fifteen minutes early today. Make sure you do the reading in the file I sent out earlier. You’re all dismissed.” All forty-five students jerked upright in their seats, eyes wide and practically sparkling.

“Yes, sir!” they all shouted together, just like every other day, knowing that exactly none of them would be doing the assignment, just like every other day. The teacher was out the door before half of the students.

“How are you so dumb?” Kouji cried as he scrambled over to his friend, running what looked like stiff fingers through his spiky black hair. He plopped down into Shouyou’s chair when the omega stood up, forgetting that the back had chipped off and nearly falling over.

Shouyou puffed out his cheeks. “You’re the actual last person who gets to call me dumb. Last week you asked Miss Kouno if she has a dick just because she’s an alpha,” he pointed out, shoving the broken tablet on the desk into Natsu’s hot-pink, floral-print bag. (And yeah, maybe Shouyou hadn’t known the answer either. But at least he wasn’t stupid enough to actually _ask_.)

“T-That has nothing to do with this,” hissed Kouji, like that would cover up his blush or the fact that he’d had detention since last Treeday. “And ‘Zeus’ doesn’t even have the same number of syllables as ‘baptism’!”

Shouyou paused.

“The same number of what?”

“Oh my god, we _just_ had Language Arts cl- y’know, just, never mind. Never mind, Shou.”

“At least I got us out early,” the redhead cheered, beaming at his friend. Kouji let his head drop to the desk for a second time with a second painful-sounding crack. It might’ve just been the wood splintering and not Kouji’s skull, though. Half of everything in the entire building had probably been rotting since before Shouyou was born. The gray tin roof looked like it was a stray breeze away from giving up too, but it had always looked like that, so Shouyou figured that as long as it collapsed on a weekend it wasn’t really his problem.

He walked out of that classroom, out of that school and hopped onto his rusty old bike next to Kouji having really only learned one thing the whole day: baptism was really, _really_ dumb.

(Until he found his first magical lake on that very bike ride home, right in front of an electronics store V-screen.)

He and Kouji were biking fast like they always did, weaving like pros around pedestrians, potholes, and the few odd autos hovering around. The backroads were never very busy though, so it wasn’t super long before they were riding past Sakanoshita’s Electronics and its famous window display of V-screens.

The window had been cracked from a legendary break-in attempt for as long as Shouyou could remember, held together by tape that looked older than the Cataclysm. The spiderwebs creeping up the glass didn’t matter, though. Out the corner of his eye he could see it just fine.

Shouyou skidded to a halt so quickly that his bike nearly flipped.

He hopped off, letting the metal drop to the concrete below, front tire still rotating in the frame. And then he stumbled over like he was in a trance, shuddering when his nose met the cold, cracked glass as he stared.

“Oi, asshole, warn me if you’re gonna stop like that!” Kouji’s voice came from behind him, sounding muffled and very far away. Almost like it was underwater.

Vaguely, in the back of Shouyou’s mind, he had known magic was something that existed. It was something that rich people and sports stars used to do really, _really_ cool things. But his family had never had a V-screen, or sports tickets, or home internet access. Meaning that he hadn’t _known_.

He hadn’t known how truly incredible dueling could be.

“And there goes the Little Giant from Hanadai’s Karasuno team, absolutely soaring across the Heaven Stage. Looks like he’s really getting into it now that his partner’s been disabled,” enthused an announcer through the screens. Shouyou pressed harder against the glass to hear her soft, tinny voice.

The co-commentator sitting next to her in the corner of the projection nodded. “You know, Kira, it’s incredible really. He’s reportedly entirely self-taught, said his family never had a cent to spare on a professional language diagnosis. And look at him, taking on the top duelists at Shintoudai like it’s nothing. As an omega no less, too!”

_Look at him_ , as if Shouyou even still had the ability to look away.

And as he clung to the window of that little brick shop, fingers white and eyes darting between ten different versions of the same tournament, he trembled. It didn’t matter that he and this duel were hundreds of miles apart. His heart thundered and his lungs began to heave as the competitors fought, stretching their magic to the limit, as if he was the one running across the field and dodging relentless attacks. He shivered at the rush of wind against his face as a streak of light narrowly missed the Little Giant. He shook from the tremoring ground beneath the opponent’s feet. And when the two finally rushed each other in a frenzy, magic building around them and lifting them up, up, _up_ , Shouyou flew.

_‘Not a cent to spare,’_ the announcer had said. Just like him.

‘ _As an omega, no less_ ,’ just like him.

_‘Entirely self-taught’_ … maybe…

“I can be just like him,” he realized, still swimming in the strange new feelings stirring around his insides. “I- I _will_ be.”

He supposed, then, that maybe the weird baptism people were onto something after all. Lakes really were special, except his lake wasn’t a real lake, or a god or religion – it was _dueling_. And it hit him less like a dip in a lake and more like one of those tidal waves from the videos they’d seen in science class, water slamming into him hard enough to knock him over and drag him deep down into the sea. Because when he came up for air, gasping for breath, the entire world was different.

There was no ‘maybe,’ anymore. There was nothing left but _need_.

And he knew he’d never be the same.

“Kouji,” he said, spinning to face the suspicious look on his friend’s face. “Let’s get Izumi and go down to the clearing.”

 

*

 

Shouyou had never really thought of Nakamura as anything special.

It was way small compared to pictures of other, cooler cities that he’d seen, and there was absolutely nothing fun to do. No professional sports, or shows, or V-theaters, or anything except bars that he technically wasn’t allowed into yet and internet lounges that were always packed. Even the maglev didn’t want to be there – it only stopped once a day.

He’d grown up knowing that he’d leave as soon as possible, go and live an exciting life somewhere incredible where things actually happened.

Except he’d clearly been a fool, a youngster with no vision, because Nakamura was actually perfect, it turned out.

Small, laid-back, and loosely governed.

It was the perfect place to practice illegal magic.

“Come on, Izumi!” he said, tugging the beta’s sleeve to hurry him along. Izumi was dragging his feet as best he could, but there were few forces in the world that could counter Shouyou’s grip when he got excited.

But even if Izumi managed to escape Shouyou knew for a fact that he could be easily carried, considering the way Kouji had literally plucked him out of a shop window earlier. And there was no way Kouji was stronger than Shouyou, even if he had been filling out lately.

In all, Izumi didn’t really have a chance.

“I- I have chores tonight, guys!” the beta whispered, looking around wildly as they turned onto Aoi Lane. It would lead them right on down to the river, and then to the forest past that. “Dad will be mad if I don’t help!”

“Your dad told us to have fun before we went and got you,” Shouyou informed him brightly.

“Darn,” Izumi muttered as aggressively as if it was an actual curse, drawing a snicker from Kouji. The alpha moved opposite Shouyou, giving him a sly grin.

As if they’d practiced the move, alpha and omega each hooked an arm under one of Izumi’s and dragged him forward, doubling their effort. He yelped in surprise, wiggling as much as he could and desperately kicking up rocks.

“H-Hey-”

“Oh my god,” Kouji cut him off. “Stop looking like we’re gonna get jumped.”

“But what if-”

“No one’s gonna risk pissing off your father.”

Shouyou nodded along, because wasn’t that the truth.

“The… the enforcers? What if they arrest us for curfew violations or trespassing?” Izumi tried a little desperately, sighing when Shouyou and Kouji shared a looked and burst into laughter. It was the wrong move since Izumi was nearly able to break free, but they wrestled him back in their grips easily enough. The beta probably had fewer muscles than Natsu.

After a moment their giggles faded, and Shouyou turned to his friend.

“It’s afternoon,” he began with. Who made a curfew for afternoons? Not even Nakamura was that lame.

“No one owns the forest,” Kouji tacked on. “And besides-”

“- _Your father_ ,” they said in unison. Case closed.

Even Izumi couldn’t argue that one, so he hung his head and let them drag him forward across the uneven ground.

Out here it was obvious why they hadn’t biked: they couldn’t, not with the “road” all patchy and jagged enough to take out anything that didn’t hover.

The outskirts were like that, though, dirty and a little bit broken: a place where roads weren’t really a thing and the homes were little shelters made with whatever materials were handy. Shouyou had long since learned that the more tent-like the houses, the more desperate people tended to get. But Kouji was right, and Izumi’s dad never let him leave the house without his sonic repellant anyway. They’d be fine.

“Guys. Please. I r-really don’t want to be here right now. I forgot my repellant today. Let’s go home.”

Oh. Well that wasn’t ideal. No wonder he was so squeamish today when they’d come this way a million times before. But the waver in his voice made Shouyou’s heart hurt just a little, so he held on even tighter, pushing their bodies together to try and comfort Izumi through touch.

“No one sane’s gonna touch us,” Kouji grumbled, rolling his head along with his eyes to show just how tired he was of saying it.

“It’s not the people with rational thinking that I’m worried about!”

“You’re worried about everything, Izu. You gotta stop, y’know,” the alpha replied, shaking his head real slow. “Every time you worry, you grow another freckle. That’s why you’re covered in the ugly little things.”

“ _Uwaah_ , you’re gonna be one giant brown spot by the time you turn twenty!” Shouyou told him, only half-joking.

Izumi opened and closed his mouth at them both like an upset fish.

“M-My dad says my freckles are beautiful!” he finally wailed, and Shouyou openly snickered.

Just as he knew they would, they reached the forest without any incident other than a few side-eyed looks from people wandering around. But no one went past the town limits, no one but them, it seemed.

As a group they pressed through the tree line, the plants so thick that even ten feet in any existence of a town next to them was erased. It was a familiar path, one they walked when they were bored and wanted something ( _anything_ ) to do, so Shouyou knew the way by heart.

In just a few minutes they’d reached it. A bright, welcoming clearing opened up in front of them, grassy and soft: their secret spot.

Shouyou could still feel the way Izumi’s tiny muscles were bunched up and tense, so he jumped in front of his friend and patted both of his arms.

“You have to relax, Izumi!” the omega urged with a grin. “You can’t do magic if you’re not relaxed!”

“Uh, yes you can?” Kouji said at the same time Izumi squeaked out an “I-I’m sorry, _what_?”

Kouji spun around to face him then, too, face all scrunched up again. “Wait, yeah, what? Shou, none of us know any magic.”

Shouyou rocked back and forth on his feet, unable to still the excitement squirming throughout his body.

“That’s why we’re out here! We’re gonna learn!”

Kouji smacked his palm to his forehead, and Shouyou was starting to wonder if his head was going to survive the day at all.

“Oh my god, you’re even dumber than in class today. Do you have any idea how long it takes to learn your magic language?”

Shouyou shrugged, not really having a clue. “What, a couple years?”

“Try decades.”

Shouyou cocked his head.

“A decade is ten years, Shou,” Izumi added helpfully.

Oh.

“Yeah. And that’s for people with actual time. We have to do things like homework…”

He paused as all three of them snickered for a moment.

“And chores,” Izumi added, not-so-helpfully.

“Yeah. Chores and shit. Exactly. Izumi even works!”

Izumi nodded vigorously.

His friends were the _worst_.

“There’s no way you’re gonna learn your language before you’re like fifty.”

That was it. Shouyou crossed his arms and puffed out his cheeks, not ready to give up at all. He _needed_ this.

“Oh yeah? People in middle school and high school and college duel, so obviously people can learn their languages quicker than that.”

“Yeah, because they pay linguists to help them figure it out, idiot.”

Normally, that argument would have worked, except now Shouyou had the counterargument to end all arguments.

“The Little Giant didn’t! He learned it all by himself. The announcers said so.”

The lack of immediate recognition and worship on their faces was a little sad, in Shouyou’s opinion.

“Who?”

“The Little Giant! The guy who was going all _whoosh_ and _bam_ and _zoom_ across the field in that tournament! Kouji, weren’t you watching?” He was almost a little scandalized, because how could anyone have missed that? Yeah, Shouyou still definitely wasn’t the dumb one here.

Kouji sighed, rubbing the squished-together skin in between his eyebrows. Something he maybe wouldn’t have to do if he didn’t scowl so much, Shouyou thought. (But Kouji had gotten mad the last time he’d pointed that out, so.)

“Look, if you’re gonna do this,” the alpha sighed, sounding way too much like Shouyou’s mother when she was tired, “you have to commit.”

“Me?” Shouyou repeated, a little disappointed. “What about us? Together? Let’s be duelists and reach the top of the top ten together!”

He paused, giving them a moment to envision the dream. The three of them on the same stage as the Little Giant, waving to the cheering crowd as they accepted their victory medals. It was _perfect_.

Except the looks on his friends’ faces told him they definitely weren’t seeing the same thing.

“I’m not gonna have a lot of time coming up. My dad’s pregnant right now,” Izumi admitted.

Both of the other boys startled. “ _Again_?”

“Yeah,” Izumi said, a little miserably. (The only appropriate reaction for someone who already had five younger siblings, in Shouyou’s absolutely correct opinion.) “So he’s gonna need me at the shop even more. I probably won’t be in school as much either.”

Before Shouyou could get too caught up wondering if the Izumis literally ever did anything except work and pop out more babies, he turned to his other friend. The way Kouji wouldn’t meet his eyes was a little less than encouraging.

 “Um. I’m joining the chasing team in middle school,” the alpha said, a stiff hand scratching at the back of his neck. “It’s kind of something I’ve always wanted to do.

“Oh…” Shouyou replied, wondering where his guts had gone to form such a sudden empty feeling inside. And sure, chasing was a fun sport and all, but Shouyou only needed his time in front of the V-screen earlier to know it had absolutely nothing on dueling. How could it? …But dreams were dreams, and Kouji could have his, even if it was kind of lame.

“But I can join the club with you on paper, so that you can sign up!” Izumi offered, grabbing Shouyou’s hand. The omega brightened, because that was an excellent first step.

“I guess I can too,” Kouji shrugged, “if it’s not at the same time as chasing. Plus we’ll have all summer to start figuring out our words and stuff.”

“You guys!” Shouyou cried through Kouji’s hand, which had gone up to shove away his incoming hug.

“Don’t be embarrassing,” the alpha muttered, giving up and scenting him anyway. He turned serious after a moment, taking a step back and looking at them both. “I wasn’t kidding about committing here, though. First we have to figure out what kinds of languages we have, and then we have to go through all the possible morpheme combinations and try to match them to words in New Japanese. And some of your words might not even _have_ a translation. Plus that’s just content words, not even function words or grammatical morphemes or pragmatic style or- oi, the hell’s that look for?”

“I didn’t understand half of what you just said,” Izumi whispered, wide-eyed and kind of impressed. Not about to admit that half was about half more than _he’d_ understood, Shouyou opted for simply staring, jaw dropped about as far as it could naturally go.

“How do you know all this?” continued Izumi, looking like he was seeing Kouji for the first time.

It struck Shouyou, then, that Kouji probably _didn’t_ , because Kouji was _not_ smarter than he was, actually, and something was clearly very wrong here. He jumped in front of Izumi, shuffling them both backwards.

“Careful,” he whispered frantically to his friend. “I think that’s an evil clone. Don’t get too close.”

“Oi, I read some! And Maki said she was interested in magic, so…”

Izumi immediately stepped around Shouyou’s protective arm. “No, that’s definitely Kouji.”

“She saw you cry in science class when that frog hopped onto your head. She’s never gonna date you,” Shouyou pointed out, just because someone had to break it to the guy. Kouji crossed his arms with a newfound scowl.

“Yeah, well. Whatever. Let’s just forget it and start, ok? This is already gonna take forever.”

Finally, something he could agree with. Shouyou dropped his hands and hopped up and down a few times, eager to begin. “Teach us, Master Kouji!”

The alpha puffed up.

“Well. Most people have verbal languages, so we might as well start there. Actually- hey, Izu, lemme steal your internet for a sec.” He grabbed the cell watch on the brunette’s arm and clicked around for a minute at the screen that popped up above Izumi’s wrist, eyes narrowed and tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration. “Ha! Found it. Here, it’s a list of the two thousand most common content words that we use in everyday life.”

Shouyou yanked Izumi’s wrist over to him next, scrolling to the top of the projected page. “‘How to learn your magic language without a diagnostician,’” he read the title of the page out loud, grinning. “Kouji, you’re a genius!”

“I know. Go down to step one,” he ordered more than suggested, but Shouyou was happy to listen.

_Connecting sounds (or gestures) to words: Trying different phoneme combinations,_ it read. Which sounded super amazing, mostly because Shouyou had no clue what that meant. He started skimming the equally confusing information under it, happy when Izumi spoke up from beside him.

“So we just have to say all the different possible sound combinations ever and hope that some of them are words for us?”

“Yeah, but I read that if you say a word that’s really one of your words, it just kinda feels right, or something. You’re supposed to know.”

Shouyou perked up.

“Ooh!” That sounded amazing, incredible. Magical.

“You don’t know what it means, though, not until you think through all the words in your actual language and match the correct meaning to your magic. If there even is one.”

“O-Oh…” Shouyou said, feeling a little like he was wilting.

“So it’s not much better than luck, then?” Izumi asked.

“For us, yeah. Diagnosticians have methods and strategies and stuff for figuring all this out, I guess, but-”

“We’ve got internet articles?” Izumi whispered in despair as his head dropped along with Shouyou’s heart.

“Master Kouji, you’ve betrayed us all!” the redhead exclaimed, slumping on top of Izumi’s slumped form.

“You’re lucky I’m even here!”

“Yeah,” Shouyou agreed happily, pausing his dramatics to bounce forward to chase his friend into a hug.

“Let’s just s-start!” Kouji hurried to say, fending off Shouyou’s love with the expertise of someone who’d spent the last ten years doing it.

Izumi shoved his screen in their faces and they stilled, reading through all the funny sounds the article suggested they try first, hoping they happened to be in their magic languages.

It wasn’t hard or anything, but as minutes turned into hours and Shouyou’s mouth turned dry and he _still_ hadn’t felt the feeling Kouji described, well. It was hard to not feel discouraged.

He’d just finished making the sound combinations in the third column when Izumi’s slight frame fell into his, barely pushing him at all.

“Sorry! I- I think I felt it!” the beta squeaked, righting himself and jumping up and down. Shouyou could feel his excitement spread into his own body, pushing him to rock back and forth.

“Eh? No way! What does it feel like! Does it make your insides go _whoosh_?” Because that’s what it had felt like watching the dueling tournament, so it only made sense.

Izumi pursed his lips. “Actually it just kind of felt… right? Like- like you know when you didn’t realize you were sore but then you stretch and it feels like the best thing ever? Like something clicked that I didn’t know was supposed to.”

Oh.

_Oh_.

“Guys. Guys, I think I’ve felt that before.”

“ _Hah_?” they cried at the same time.

Izumi smacked at his arm. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It wasn’t today. Um, it kind of happens a lot, actually. So maybe it’s nothing?”

He definitely wasn’t expecting Kouji to snicker. “With all the weird sounds you make I’m actually not surprised.”

Izumi did a pretty bad job of not smiling, but it was okay when he turned to Shouyou and kindly said, “If you think you’ve felt it, then you’ve probably felt it. So what are you usually saying when it happens?”

“Ah, it happens sometimes when I move, not when I speak,” he admitted, worried that he might’ve misunderstood. Laughing awkwardly, he brought a hand to the back of his head. “Like sometimes when mom drags me around the apartment and makes me dance with her?”

He’d thought that was just the feeling of having too much fun, but maybe….

“Shou. Languages don’t have to be verbal, idiot. Izumi, dance with him and maybe he’ll feel it again!”

“Eh? Why me?”

“We both know I can’t dance,” Kouji pointed out.

“Neither can Shou!”

“Rude!” He grabbed Izumi for good measure and started to shift them in his best attempt at dance-like movements. It definitely wasn’t anything like his mother could do, but at least it was a start.

“Are you dancing or having a seizure, Shou?” Kouji snickered, leaning against a tree all cool-like, as if he wasn’t actually worse than Shouyou himself. It made the omega feel like he’d swallowed something sour, so he stuck his tongue out.

“ _Rude!_ ” And sure, Shouyou definitely did suck, but he was going to be the world’s greatest magic user, not dancer, so it didn’t really matter in the end.

“Besides,” Shouyou continued, “you look- _oh_!”

He’d felt it, rushing through him like an electric shock in all the best ways. That click. It wasn’t fun after all. It was _magic_.

“That, right there! Whatever we did, let’s do it again!”

Izumi perked up, retracing their last couple of movements (which were mostly just them stepping purposefully in different directions with different various arm flailing, but Shouyou was _trying_ , here) so they could do it again.

Nothing.

They tried again. Again, nothing. No feeling, no whoosh in his belly. No click.

“Hmm. Your hip isn’t swaying,” Kouji said, eyes narrowed.

“What?”

“Your hip. You definitely swayed it a little after you shouted ‘rude’. Try it as you put your food down. Like this.” Kouji demonstrated the move as best he could, making a kind of up-and-down twisting movement with his hips, then walked over to manually move Shouyou through the motions.

It felt funny the way Kouji was forcefully moving him but he was pretty sure he got the idea, so he did it again himself, paying special attention to that funny hip flick-y motion.

And his body lit up.

He felt it. He felt _right_. There was that click, that connection his muscles were making to some part of the universe, telling him he was close to something _more_.

His first magic word.

So he made the motion again, and again, committing it to memory in his mind and muscles both, laughing all the while.

“Your language really is gestural, not verbal,” Izumi said, laughing delightedly along with him. “That’s incredible, Shou!”

“Gestural, like hand movements and stuff?” he asked, desperate to know more.

“Like any part of your body moving, according to this article,” Kouji said, popping the site back open on Izumi’s cell watch. “‘Gestural magic-users may utilize movements derived from any of the more than six hundred skeletal muscles, singular or in combination, in order to form the morphemes that comprise words or grammatical units,’ it says.”

“Whoa.” He was only about half sure what that meant, but it sounded intense. “So now I have to translate it, I guess? Match it to something in New Japanese?”

“If it even has a translation,” Izumi pointed out. He jerked when Shouyou shot him a squinty glare, eyes narrowed as far as they could go.

“Yep,” said Kouji, making the ‘p’ pop. “And you better hope that movement is a content word, and not something dumb like ‘the.’”

“Like the what?”

“Like the word ‘the,’ idiot.”

“Oh. Why, though? Won’t I need all words eventually?”

“Yeah, if you wanna get good. But content words – that’s like nouns and verbs and shit – those are gonna be the most helpful in making different kinds of magical speech acts. Or different attacks, if you’re dueling.”

Shouyou stared at him, a little teary.

“I’m so glad you decided to like Maki, Kou,” he said, sincere.

The alpha rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that sounded like “I pay attention in language arts, too, unlike you.”

Actually, that was an excellent point, as much as it chafed to admit. Shouyou would _definitely_ be paying attention to his upcoming middle school language classes, now that he _knew_. No way he was going to let other future duelists get even more of a head start on him.

“Here’s the list Kouji mentioned,” Izumi said, wrist in Shouyou’s face. “You’ll have to make that move each time as you try a new word.”

“There’s what, two thousand on that one, right?” Kouji asked. A distracted hum came from Izumi, who’d started reading through the words. Shouyou, on the other hand, was busy despairing.

“I might have to repeat this _two thousand times_ before I find a match?”

The alpha shrugged as he laid himself out over a large rock, kicking up his feet. “Who knows? You could get lucky. Maybe it’ll be one of the first few you try? Or maybe not. The article says the average adult actually knows more than thirty thousand words… Hmm. We might have to find a bigger list of suggestions.”

Oh gods. But it was worth it, Shouyou reminded himself, so worth it, so he planted his foot and twisted his hip again and again and again, trying word after word after word.

“Apple.”

Foot, hip.

“Electricity.”

Foot, hip.

The sun had completely disappeared by the time he’d reached the ‘f’ sound in the alphabetized list, and Izumi and Kouji had already amassed a collection of three unmatched magic words each.

“Hey,” he called out to his friends mid-motion, their figures lit up by the glow of their wrists, “How much – _find_ – longer do you think – _fine_ – it’ll take me to – _finish_ – find the correct – _fire_ – holy _crap_!”

A small, wispy flame burst forth in front of him, fizzling out within a moment, but Shouyou barely noticed. He was too busy focusing on the absolute whirlwind of incredible happening inside his body, burning through him in his new favorite way.

A rush started to build, soaring through his bones from his feet to his legs, up into his gut where it stirred around and started to explode, tingling outwards and filling him with a buzzing warmth. It was new and amazing and yet so familiar, like he’d been waiting all his life to feel it, and now that he had, he was home.

And when the feeling of matching his first word fizzled out just like that tiny little flame, he knew it, clearer than he’d ever known anything: Magic.

Magic itself was his second lake.

He was going to learn his magic language. And he was going to duel.

“Are you freaking kidding me? No way are you that lucky!” Kouji yelped, scrambling over to hold Shouyou upright. And yeah, now that the rush was fading he was feeling a little droopy, a little empty, and definitely glad for the two sets of hands now yanking him up.

“That was incredible, Shou!”

Yeah, he knew. Except now he _really_ felt kind of tired, and kind of funny inside, not really in a good way anymore, and-

He leaned over and vomited right there on Kouji’s shoes.

The alpha yelped and hurried to pull them off while Izumi panicked and knelt down to help the omega, patting him all over in a really unhelpful way. But the gesture was nice, at least.

“Are you ok? Can I help? Do you need anything, or-”

“I’m f-fine,” Shouyou coughed, clearing his throat and still hacking up little brown bits of his instant oatmeal lunch. Izumi thumped him on the back a few times as he gagged up what he hoped was the last of it.

“Here, sit down. Maybe I can bring you back some water from the river in my hands, or something.”

“I’m okay now, promise,” Shouyou lied, showing his very best grin.

“Wow, that’s great for you, Shou,” Kouji called over, a screechy quality to his voice that didn’t bode well for the omega’s continued safety. He could probably use Izumi as a shield, though, if he really needed. “Really. I’m glad you’re happy, since I’m absolutely thrilled, now that my shoes smell like your puke.”

Shouyou grimaced, trying to whistle innocently but only managing to cough a bit more. Izumi somehow managed to scoot even closer.

“At least I’ve found my first real magic word?” the omega said, feeling better and better the more he thought about it because he’d done it. He’d actually discovered his first word, and it was the second most incredible he’d ever felt. And he’d get to feel this feeling hundreds more times, thousands, even, once he grew his vocabulary even more.

Kouji sighed. “…That _was_ pretty cool. Don’t you dare do it again, though. Not today. I only have so many clothes.”

Shouyou paled. “That won’t happen every time I use magic, right?” Because he was no strategist, but pausing each word to throw up sounded like a really ineffective dueling strategy.

The way Kouji shrugged did absolutely nothing to make him feel better. “Who knows? That could’ve been because it was your first word, or just the fact that you matched a word, or because magic makes people tired, or even blowback from an incomplete speech act.”

Shouyou’s head tilted. “Blowback?”

“What happens when your magic doesn’t work? You need to tell it to do specific things, Shou. You can’t just say ‘fire’ and expect it to do exactly what you want.”

Gods, Shouyou had so much to learn. Good thing he had all of summer break to spend learning it.

The thought made him grin. He stood up, testing his stomach before straightening fully and facing his two best friends.

“I’m going to become the world’s greatest duelist,” he promised them right there in that little clearing. He felt it in his soul, like it was fate.

Instead of agreeing, Kouji snorted. And it burned, that response, so Shouyou covered the hurt with crossed arms and a scowl.

“Kouji,” Izumi whined softly, looking worried. Not exactly an inspiring response either.

“What, you don’t think I can do it?” he asked, cursing the way his voice was filled with way too much hurt and not enough harsh.

The alpha scoffed. “Nah, of course you’re gonna pull it off, you crazy bastard,” he said so casually, so _trusting_. Like it was dumb for the question to even exist. It took a moment for Shouyou to realize his hand was clutching at his chest, as if it could catch all the parts of his heart that were melting like a puddle. The alpha blurred a little bit in front of him, turning into a hazy blob that Shouyou quickly wiped clear.

“K-Kouji!” he wailed, breaking into a sprint and jumping on the alpha’s backtracking form. They went down, Kouji breaking his fall with a pained wheeze and then a choked cry when Shouyou’s arms went around his neck in a hug.

“Hey, don’t leave me out!” Izumi shouted, falling on top of the pair and nuzzling every spot of exposed skin he could find on both of his friends.

Sandwiched between them, on the grass in the warm spring night air with the tingle of latent magic swirling across his skin, Shouyou felt absolutely _right_.

“Anyway,” Kouji mumbled as best he could through Shouyou’s hair, “I snorted because I was thinking about your Playmate.”

Shouyou sat up suddenly, accidentally dropping Izumi to the ground. “Eh? What about them?”

Scrambling to his knees and brushing dirt off his shirt, Izumi gave him a look. It was the frowny kind, filled with way too much worry, but that was basically ninety percent of the faces he made so Shouyou wasn’t too concerned.

“Um, I think it was an ‘only if they let you’ snort. Not a ‘Shou can’t do it’ snort,” Izumi translated. “You know your Playmate gets to choose your club activity, right? And people around here are still pretty traditional, after all….”

“‘Pretty’?” Kouji scoffed under his breath.

Oh, was that all? Shouyou rolled backwards onto the grass, the tension in his muscles floating away.

“Of course I know that,” he said, tilting his head backwards so that he could see the upside-down expressions of his friends. Everyone knew that, even Natsu probably, and she was like five. “But that’s old people who are like that! Who our age would ever tell me no?”

Kouji and Izumi shared a look before shrugging and collapsing on top of each other again, a pile of sweaty laughter and jostling to be on top.

His question was quickly forgotten in favor of trying to find more magic words, mostly because magic was way more interesting than anything else, but also a little bit because it was so unimportant, Shouyou figured.

It really wasn’t worth thinking about at all.

After all, what kind of person wouldn’t let him duel?

“Same time tomorrow?” Shouyou asked.

A scoff and a smile were thrown his way, as were two voices sharing a single word: “Obviously.”

 

***

 

“The Little Giants!”

“We’re not naming ourselves like a fan club, idiot.”

“The Next Little Giants?”

“ _No,_ ” Kouji and Izumi said at the same time, both of them giving him impressively identical unimpressed stares.

“ _Fine_ ,” pouted Shouyou, squinting at them both. “Um. Nakamura Middle School Dueling Club?”

“There you go.”

Izumi nodded shyly, a little excited. “Sounds good to me!”

Shouyou grinned and filled in the name on their new club application as neatly as he could, which wasn’t terribly neat, but this was special. This club was everything, so he took his time. He finished the strokes on the last character and pressed the send button on Izumi’s tablet, feeling like his heart was taking off straight into the sky.

Looking over his shoulder to see his friends at his back like usual, he couldn’t help but meet their gazes and grin.

“Hey. Guys. We’re a dueling team.”

“ _Club_ , not team. We don’t have a quorum. We can’t even compete.”

The excitement in Shouyou’s smile turned into promise.

“Not _yet_.”

(When Shouyou was twelve he started his first dueling team, and everything was looking up.)

*

Principal Keito sighed at him, scrolling through a digital file that Shouyou couldn’t see.

“Unsanctioned use of magic in the courtyard. Unsanctioned use of magic in the hallways. Unsanctioned- really, Hinata? The restrooms?”

Shouyou wrinkled his nose, because it had been super gross in there but he’d had no choice. His other spots had been taken that day.

“Ok, look. Obviously we can’t suspend or expel you, because your only alternative is homeschooling and I know your mother is busy supporting the household herself. That would be like giving you license to perform even more unsupervised, illegal magic.”

Wow. Shouyou had only met this guy twice, probably, and he definitely had the omega pegged. It was impressive and scary all at once.

“So can I go back to class, then? It’s club day!”

The old alpha sighed again, rubbing at his face. “Is it at least helping?”

“Eh?”

“All this clandestine – that means secretive – practice? Are you at least getting somewhere with it?”

“Oh! I know almost four hundred of my magic words now!”

The alpha’s eyebrows raised, and he tilted his head back to the sky.

“Keep your private practice to the forests and don’t get seen, got it? And for the love of the gods, don’t damage anything.”

Happiness burst all through Shouyou, so much that he couldn’t help beaming and jumping up before bowing super low.

“Yes sir!”

(By the end of his sixth-grade year, Shouyou had earned over twenty disciplinary marks on his record, but he really didn’t mind.

They were all for magic, so they were worth it.)

*

The walls of Shouyou’s family apartment were probably the thinnest material known to mankind. He’d learned to ignore the noise at nighttime so it wasn’t a huge problem, but it meant he could hear _everything_. Other people eating, other people crapping, other people screwing and fighting and singing. But especially other people talking.

“Don’t you think you’re being an irresponsible parent?” he heard from the hallway one Sunday, right outside their apartment entrance. The voice was scratchy and overused, the tone arrogant and cold.

“Excuse me?” came his mother’s semi-muffled reply.

“Letting your omega son mess around with magic. Dueling. He could get hurt, and then where would that leave your family? Think of your children, Kanna. Think of your reputation.”

“Shou, _don’t_ ,” Natsu hissed, springing onto him and latching onto his midsection tight. He hadn’t even realized he’d almost made it to the door from their futon, but his body had the right idea. _No one_ talked to his mother like that.

Natsu gripped him harder.

“I really don’t think it’s any concern of yours what happens to my family, Mrs. Takahashi.”

Yeah! _Tell her_ , Shouyou cheered in his head.

“Look, Kanna,” the beta continued, and Shouyou didn’t need to be able to see through walls to picture her smug old face perfectly. No one on their floor liked Mrs. Takahashi, probably because she looked like a condescending, wrinkly old raisin left in the sun. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but he’s been going around town talking about tournaments and joining the pros. The neighbors agree with me. This has gone on long enough.”

His body jerked forward, dragging him and Natsu both before she started whacking him on the back.

“I’m serious. You’re gonna make it worse, and who do you think will get blamed?” Natsu whispered.

Oh. He hadn’t thought about that.

The last thing he wanted was for his mother to get in trouble because of him, so he straightened, torn. Which was the better way to protect his mom?

Neither, apparently, when she laughed a single dry laugh.

“But he is going to go pro, you see. He’s going to enter the top ten, because I know my son and he can do anything he sets his mind to. It has nothing to do with his dynamic and everything to do with his drive. So you can kindly fuck off, thank you.”

Yeah, she could take care of herself just fine.

Shouyou felt Natsu’s mouth drop against his back, probably a mirror image of his own, before they both burst out giggling. His nerves were still on edge but his stomach felt light again, especially when his mother came inside, slammed the door shut, and gathered them both in a long hug.

(The spring before Shouyou turned thirteen he almost fought his elderly neighbor.

And then another neighbor, and more than a couple random townspeople he heard whispering until his mother had sat him down and taught him all about brushing the words off.

“Don’t fight them, Shou,” she said. “Prove them _wrong._ ”)

*

At the start of seventh-grade, Shouyou got a job working for Izumi’s father at the bar. A legal one, unlike Izumi’s shop hand gig during school hours or Kouji’s super sketchy side hustle as a delivery boy. (But the alpha had assured his friends that as long as he didn’t ask what was inside, everything was good, and that had been good enough for Shouyou.)

It took him six months to save every last doru he could but he did it. During Christmas break that year, Shouyou left Nakamura for the first time.

He got on his first maglev, took his first trip to Hanano.

Met his first friends from a different city and took the first test that he ever actually cared about.

Two days later, he waited two hours in an internet lounge to download his first message from the National Magic Council. It flashed across the main display in the most beautiful script he’d ever seen.

_Congratulations. You have met the [LEXICAL] threshold. You have achieved Class [4] Rank [C] Certification. Please see the attached file for a detailed score breakdown._

Shouyou didn’t stop jumping around until he got kicked out of the building.

And then he jumped some more.

(That December, Shouyou felt like his journey to greatness could finally start.)

*

The next fall two sixth-graders joined the dueling club, filling the quorum. Making them a dueling team.

Shouyou and his friends could compete, now.

Shouyou could be just like the Little Giant and _win_.

(Finally, in the fall of his fourteenth year, Shouyou took his first real step forward.)

 

***

 

The realization that he would be entering high school in two short months hit him much the same way Natsu woke him up that morning: a kick to the gut.

Shouyou wheezed and rolled off their shared futon in pain, clutching at his aching ( _very_ delicate) midsection.

Eventually everything stopped throbbing long enough for him to choke out a betrayed “Natsu, _why_?”

The eight-year-old shot up, swiping furiously at the orange curls covering her eyes.

“Mmm, whaa?” she slurred, before falling back down on her pillow and snoring twice. Ugh, sisters were the worst. Especially the little kind.

_Especially_ Natsu.

(In the last few years she’d gone from adorable and shy to adorable and loud and then finally adorable and very aware that she was adorable, using it to get away with whatever she wanted.

It had been funny until she’d started turning on _him_ , as evil little sisters were bound to do. It was like fate, or something, and his victory in their eventual sibling rivalry was going to be epic.)

His irritation melted away the moment a scent of something mouthwateringly delicious wafted over to him, and he breathed in deep – _pork_. Suddenly everything was right in the world again, and he crawled as best as he could towards the light of the kitchen where he could hear his mother humming. It was his second favorite sound besides the heavenly sizzle of meat against cast iron, probably, and both were happening at once, so things were definitely starting to look up.

He peeked around the thin screen thingy that separated their living space from the bedroom to see his mother dancing around the kitchen. She worked like a pro, whipping up what looked like a feast for ten people, and gods it smelled _good_.

Apparently his stomach decided that was a good time to growl loudly enough for the whole apartment complex to hear, startling his mother out of her rhythm. Spinning around, she gave him her widest winning smile – it was the kind that lit up her brown eyes and wrinkled the skin at their corners and tilted her head like it was too heavy to hold up straight anymore under the weight of all that happy. He gave her the same one in return, because _pork_.

“Baby! You’re awake early! Eh- why are you on the floor? Are you throwing up again?”

His smile dropped. “It’s all Natsu’s fault,” he muttered, not bitter at all.

“C’mere, let me see you,” she said, pulling him up off the floor and starting to attack him with quick pecks wherever her lips could reach on his face.

“I’m fine,” he said between laughing and trying to swat her away, “oi, I’m fine!”

“Good,” she said, getting one last kiss in on his nose before returning to her little electric cooktop. “I’m glad you’re finally feeling better. I know these last couple of months have been difficult.”

Choosing not to think about the understatement of the decade, instead he peeked into a couple of the pots and pans she had sitting out. Fruit in one, some sautéed veggies in another, and-

_Jackpot_.

Pork _and_ egg over rice. Today was officially the best day.

His mother laughed when she saw the look on his face.

“What, I can’t treat my baby boy on his last day of middle school?” She wandered over again and rubbed her hands along his arms, taking a good look at him. And then she pulled him close again, like there was some magnet inside him that she couldn’t resist.

“Nope! Treat away,” he grinned, glad his mother couldn’t see his probably-pink face as she rubbed her face all over his neck and squeezed him tight. Not wasting the opportunity, he breathed in her scent deeply, loving the smell of home, except it was tinged by just the smallest bit of something bitter.

“Are you crying?” he squeaked out, alarmed when he felt something a little too wet against his skin.

She held him tighter to stop him from wriggling away, shoving his face into her soft brown hair. “N-No.”

“Mom…” he said a little awkwardly, because as much as he enjoyed being hugged and nuzzled and touched, crying was just a little bit too far. His arms came up kind of automatically, rubbing at her back.

“It’s just, I remember when you only reached my knees and you would follow me around all day, smiling and saying ‘I love you Mommy’ and asking me to throw you in the air, and now you’re going into high school, not my little baby anymore. Look how tall you are!”

His nose wrinkled involuntarily – it was kind of a rude sentiment when they were exactly the same height and everyone said she was tiny, but he let it slide.

Instead he whined another “ _Mom_ ,” wriggling even harder in her shockingly iron grip. For someone much thinner than him all around, she was frighteningly strong. He could feel the muscles in her arms from working with cleaning equipment and tools all day, locking him in place firmly. And true, there were worse places to be stuck, but still.

“Hey, me too, me too! I want in!” Natsu cried out from beside the screen thingy, stumbling over to trap him in a solid cage of emotional Hinata women. Until a thick, burning smell hit them, causing Natsu to sneeze and his mom to gasp in alarm at the column of smoke rising up from one of the pans.

“The pork!” she yelped, darting over to save the meat. Taking the opportunity to slip out of his sister’s arms too, Shouyou wandered over to start heaping rice onto his plate.

“Why’s there so much food?” asked Natsu, eyeing the setup suspiciously.

“It’s a celebration, of course! It’s Shouyou’s last day of middle school.”

“Eh? I don’t get break for another week! No fair!”

“Ha! This is the true power of an almost high schooler!” he announced with a sweep of his arm, laughing evilly at his evil little sister when she made a face.

All teasing stopped the moment their mother placed the meat and eggs on the table, both siblings much more interested in stuffing themselves full.

“I’m gonna explode,” he whined eventually, hands over his stomach hoping that might keep everything intact.

“Please do,” Natsu said with a hopeful-sounding sigh. “Then mom and I can have the apartment to ourselves. It’ll finally be _clean_.”

“Not with bits of my guts all over everything. Since I exploded and all,” he pointed out reasonably. A gagging sound came from his sister’s throat.

“I’ve been cleaning your guts out of the bathroom since spring. Never again.”

He shrugged, because it wasn’t his fault she’d chosen bathroom duty when they’d divvied up the chores. It wasn’t like he’d planned the switch to happen right before he started presenting, but he had to admit it worked out pretty nicely for him in the end.

“Oh, Shou,” his mother said, popping up suddenly right in front of him. “I don’t want to forget to give you this before you leave.”

Dangling in front of his face was a familiar little pouch, knit with tight yellow yarn in the same kind of pattern his mom liked to make to hold gifts.

“A present?” he asked eagerly, starting to feel a flush of anticipation. His mom pulled him to his feet and handed him the pouch, kissing him once on the forehead.

“Consider it a graduation present and an early birthday present all in one.”

He undid the strings keeping it together and dumped the contents into his palm, only to see… cash? A lot of cash.

Holy crap, there was doru after doru in a thick wad, all papery and blue with large numbers staring up at him from each corner. The first several all said “1”, starting in smaller denominations but getting bigger and bigger as he sifted through them. A pang in his chest grew alongside his running mental total, sharpening with each new bill he discovered. Gods, this would’ve taken his mother _months_ to save up, and holy _crap_ , there had to be at least-

“There’s five hundred doru in there. That’s the tournament entrance fee, right? I… I know I haven’t been able to help you all these years with your magic, but I wanted to do _something_ for you. And you’ve wanted to sign up for this tournament for ages, so-”

Shouyou didn’t let her finish, just jumped into her arms.

“ _M-Mom_ ,” he choked out wetly, burying his face into her neck this time as she spun them around the room.

“Hey, I know how much work you’ve put into this, building your magic language every day, even when you had to get a job and… Shouyou,” she said, grabbing his face to look him in the eye, “I’m so proud of you. For finding something you love and going after it with everything you’ve got.”

_That_ struck him in the gut harder than her gift reveal, a spreading sensation of _warm_ and _love_ and _family_ and _support_ , everything that she’d always made him feel.

Gods he was lucky.

His sendoff to school was a blur after that, a blur of hugging and even more tears and an almost unbearable level of excitement, so much that he barely remembered even reaching school, let alone sitting in it for half the day.

He ended up nibbling on his lunch bread in the courtyard without any actual memory of how he’d gotten there, but-

“You look weird, Shou. Disappointed with your schedule?”

The omega yelped and scrambled back from the face right in front of his, grinning when he saw Kouji staring back at him with Izumi on his heels and towering over them both.

“My schedule?”

For a moment his morning was forgotten, curiosity taking over.

“Right, forgot your tablet was never fixed. NHS sent out everyone’s schedule today. The counselor made a noted that I have to take two history classes since I’m definitely gonna fail this one. Said it’s to catch up with our peers or something. And that means you will too.”

Oh, _gods_.

The counselor, while a generally nice person, definitely didn’t realize that he couldn’t catch up if he was _dead_. Shouyou was going to die from boredom at the ripe age of fifteen and his mom would cry.

“I need to get out of Nakamura,” he told his friends seriously.

(He’d had an escape plan for years now, just in case, one that was mostly just him going to Izumi’s father and asking how to run away and start a new life. But he _had_ gone as far as to sketch out some possible criminal codenames – _The One Who Descended from the Mid-East_ was his running favorite – before his mom had caught him and laughed so hard she’d cried. Which was better than her crying because he’d died of boredom, he supposed, but also pretty rude.)

Except it hit him after a moment that he definitely couldn’t leave just yet, not before his first tournament…

The morning came rushing back to him, and everything disappeared except for his friends and that wonderful, wonderful pouch burning a hole in his pocket.

“Guys! Guys! We can sign up for the tournament! We’re gonna get to play in a real match!”

A slow, genuine smile spread across Kouji’s pimply face. “No way! You got the cash? Who’d you rob?”

“No one! Mom gave it to me this morning. An early birthday present so that we can go!”

Izumi hopped over to see the wad of cash in his hand, eyes wide and sparkling.

“How much?”

“A whole five hundred doru!” He fanned the cash out to show it off, waving it back and forth until both of his friends’ smiles fell. The bills followed, drooping in his hands.

“Shouyou, that’s not going to be enough.”

The omega rolled his eyes. “Sure, but now I can use the money I’ve saved for the other expenses! This is the start we needed!”

Like it was a habit, Izumi and Kouji huddled together, fully in planning mode.

“You realize we’ll still need maglev tickets, right?”

“Our gear has to be regulation, too. We might have to buy new pads.”

“And since the maglev only stops in Nakamura once a day we’ll have to find a place to stay in the city overnight, too, and-”

“I emptied my tip jar from the bar and added it to everything else,” Shouyou interrupted him. “I have almost eight hundred doru total now. Our pads are fine – I already checked – and I have a friend who lives near New Tokyo. He said we can stay overnight with his family.”

He’d gone over this a thousand times in his mind, and he was ready. Everything was ready.

An impressed grin snuck over Kouji’s face to match Izumi’s happy smile. “You mean…?”

“I already told Suzuki and Kawashima, but I’m buying the tickets and sending in the entrance fee tonight,” he announced. Feeling absolutely ten feet tall, he told them: “Guys. We’re really going.”

He wasn’t really quite sure how they’d ended up on the ground, wrestling and elbowing and grinning like idiots, but the omega wasn’t exactly surprised either. Eventually he closed his eyes and threw his head back, breathing in the crisp almost-summer air.

“We’re gonna duel!”

“Yeah we are!” Kouji cheered, clearly swept into the excitement.

“And we’re gonna win!”

“Every single event!” Izumi joined in, making a valiant effort to show as much enthusiasm as the alpha, even if both of them had only reluctantly joined in on this whole tournament thing because he’d been begging to compete for the last year straight. Shouyou was a little bit in love with his friends in that moment.

He smiled, content with the world.

“And I’m gonna duel in high school, too, after Kouji becomes my Playmate, and then I’ll go pro, and it’ll be incredible!”

There was a beat of silence, and then:

“ _Hah_?” Kouji screeched, an almost girly sound that caught the attention of the whole courtyard. “I become your what now?”

Shouyou sat up and put his hands on his hips. “Well it can’t be Izumi since he’s already got one.”

Somehow Izumi had managed to be asked by one of the three other omegas in their grade. It had been awkward and adorable, with enough shy stammering and red faces to make everyone watching melt.

So with Izumi out of the running, naturally Shouyou had spent the remainder of the school year assuming that Kouji would become his Playmate next January and let him duel as much as he wanted.

Kouji, apparently, had _not_ spend the remainder of the school year aware of this fact.

“No way in fuck am I fucking you, Shouyou!”

It took a moment for the words to register, but the moment they did, heat blazoned across Shouyou’s face. Even hiding it in his hands couldn’t stop the spread of the flush.

“Don’t be so vulgar in public!” Shouyou cried through his fingers. “We don’t have to screw if you don’t want to!”

“Um, yes we would, if we were Playmates. It’s part of the deal. And even if we wouldn’t always remember it, it still counts!”

“At least after the first year you would,” Izumi added, a person who would definitely know.

Shouyou, on the other hand, had _not_ known that. And now that he did, his face was starting to feel very cold, with its sudden lack of blood and all. Because looking back he didn’t exactly want to screw Kouji either. It would be like doing his brother… just _wrong_ , somehow, in a way he couldn’t put into words but definitely felt in a crawly itch all under his skin.

“Exactly. It’s gross, right?” agreed Kouji, eyeing him and his newfound horror up and down.

“I’ll find someone else,” Shouyou quickly squeaked out.

“Well it is the law.”

Right. Well, he’d worry about that later, then.

Like in his free period, after he’d said goodbye to his friends and walked into his crammed homeroom, scanning the crowd.

It was kind of weird, looking at his classmates and knowing he’d have to sleep with one of them. And it might not have been bad if he’d had someone specific in mind, except nobody really stood out.

A guy, he decided. His Playmate would need to be a guy. Girls were really pretty, but they could also be super scary, and by this point in his education he was at least eighty percent sure they didn’t have the parts he definitely wanted his Playmate to have if they were gonna screw.

So that took care of about a quarter of the class, leaving at least twenty-five or so candidates who he knew for a fact hadn’t already been asked.

Good enough for him.

He stood up loudly, chair squeaking against the floor and hands slamming on his desk.

“Oi, I have to get a Playmate next year,” he announced. “Who’d be okay with doing me?”

He hadn’t expected so many hands to shoot into the air – fifteen, he counted – and a pleasant little flush was definitely working its way across his cheeks and neck, heating him up from the inside out. It was flattering to see the interest glint in their eyes. He felt… powerful?

“Great! So I’ll need a guy who’ll let me duel, of course, and I’m fine with…” he trailed off as hands sheepishly lowered, taking with them any of the positivity he’d been feeling. Now he just felt _cold_.

“Sorry, Hinata. I think my dad would kill me if I did that,” said one of the guys. A couple others nodded along.

“Besides, NHS doesn’t have a dueling club,” one girl, a (usually) sweet beta, pointed out. Something sugary in her tone made him bristle. “And don’t you want to do something a little less… intense?”

An alpha named Yuudai chimed in before Shouyou could outline all of his detailed plans for a high school team.

“High school isn’t college or the pros, but it’s way more serious than middle school dueling, you know,” he said, as if Shouyou, the only actual duelist in the class, did not know that. Yuudai was one of the dumbest people in their grade, though, with his stupid black bowl cut and stupid face, so it wasn’t that surprising that he hadn’t thought his comment through. “What I mean is it’s a whole different level. No one from Nakamura is gonna be able to compete with anyone from an actual city.”

He was about to argue, but Aki was just a little bit faster. “Come on, guys. Shouyou can make it happen, don’t you think?” his friend added. Shouyou wanted to leap into the alpha’s arms.

“No?” a few different classmates said in sync, snickering together until nearly all the students joined in.

Shouyou sat down at his desk hard, arms crossed and face hot for a different reason.

“Oh yeah? Well I heard Shouyou say he’s taking the dueling club to a tournament soon. He’ll show you he can handle it!” Aki cried with enough passion that a couple napping students jerked upright, startled.

“Yeah, sure, he’ll show us all right,” someone said, snorting, “and all those other spoon-fed rich city alphas he’ll be going up against. I’m sure he’ll even bring home the gold.”

“I _will_ ,” Shouyou bit out, glaring around the room. “I’m going to win.”

He didn’t even hear the laughter this time, just covered his ears and sat back to wait for the period to end.

It didn’t matter what his stupid classmates thought. He’d find a Playmate who loved dueling as much as he did, and he’d be fine.

As soon as class was dismissed Shouyou was up and scrambling over to his friend’s desk, a perfect idea forming in his head.

“Aki?” he asked hopefully, knowing the alpha understood.

He gave Shouyou a sympathetic smile. “Maki asked me already, actually. And I said yes. Otherwise I really would. I’m sorry, Shouyou.”

“It’s okay,” the omega said, trying his very best to force a smile. “I’ll just have to ask people in the other homerooms!” Yeah. That would have to work.

“But hey, they stream the middle school tournaments, you know. I’ll be rooting for you guys the whole time!”

That was right. Shouyou couldn’t let the Playmate thing bother him, not when he had a real, actual tournament to win. And of course he’d win, and then he’d come back and prove his dumb classmates wrong, and then they’d be scrambling over themselves to be his Playmate and let him duel some more.

He’d _show them_.

“Thanks, Aki!” he said with a real grin this time, scenting his friend quickly before running out of the school. And straight into Izumi, who giggled when Shouyou nosed happily into his neck.

“Whoa, did you find someone?” the beta asked.

“Nope, but I definitely will!”

“Oh. Well, uh, that’s the spirit!” Izumi cried, nuzzling him back. “Hey, don’t you have work tonight? It’s Goldenday.”

Shouyou jerked backwards.

“Oh crap. Your father’s gonna kill me if I’m late!”

“He- he doesn’t do that anymore!” Izumi shouted from behind him, already sounding like he was miles away as Shouyou sprinted through the schoolyard gates.

He had a plan now, a solid one that was really going to work. And for the moment, almost everything was perfect.

 

***

 

The lake gods were at it again.

Shouyou was going to start a movement to bring back worship of the baptism lake gods, because three times now they’d proven their stuff.

Dueling, magic, and now _this_.

That Earthday had almost turned out to be the worst in the history of all humankind, because he’d nearly slept through his wall-neighbor’s alarm. But he hadn’t, and he’d kissed his mother goodbye and grabbed some toast and rice and sprinted to the bike rack.

Except not sleeping in didn’t still mean he couldn’t miss the maglev, and there was no way he’d lose his first dueling tournament through disqualification. Not a chance.

So he pedaled harder, pushing himself until he was passing Sakanoshita’s Electronics’ familiar storefront. In a hurry, he almost missed it. But the volume from the display was loud that morning against the quiet street, and the bright colors of the news report drew his eye.

He came to a skidding halt.

The glass in front of the V-screens was still cracked, the tape still holding on like a champ. The cool glass against Shouyou’s nose was just as chilly as he remembered.

That morning the screen projections were sleeker and way cooler-looking than three years before, but the sensations bursting through him as he stared were the same. His heart fluttered and his lungs suddenly couldn’t get enough air and it was like wings had sprouted from his back as he listened to the pretty news anchor explain.

“-considered a fatal setback to the remnants of the Traditionalist party,” the woman narrated with a toothy smile, “and a sign to others that a new era has finally fully arrived.”

“That’s right, Kira,” the other jumped in, “and here we’re showing you video from just this morning as Prime Minister Saiyama stamps his seal onto the bill. Look at that! Incredible, isn’t it? History being made. As of 6:00 a.m. this morning it’s official, everyone. Order O-1153, known as the Adolescent Omega Protection Act of 388, has been legally abolished. Now, this marks the first time since the Restorationist Era in the fifth century P.C. that-”

The man continued his script but Shouyou had long since stopped listening, his awareness narrowing down to one thing. Order O-1153 was… abolished?

The only thing that still haunted him was gone? Just like that?

The truth swept over him like he’d touched a live wire, intense and electrifying until all his nerves were frayed in a wonderful, wonderful way. He almost didn’t understand it, this sense of weightlessness now that nothing was tethering him to the earth. If it felt like he could fly before, then at that moment he wasn’t sure he’d ever touch the ground again.

Freedom. Freedom was his third lake, and Shouyou was free. He was _free_.

Now there was no reason to cringe when January was mentioned. He didn’t have to care about which jerk ended up as his Playmate, because they’d have no say over what he could and couldn’t do. No one could tell him no anymore.

Elated, ecstatic, and cheeks burning from the stretch of his grin, he hopped back on his bike and raced towards the monorail station without a care in the world, because the truth of it was right there in front of him:

No matter what, this tournament today wasn’t going to be his last.

 

***


	6. The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I present you with: Way Too Long of a Backstory, Sorry, Whoops: Part 2, Way Too Much Accidental Exposition That I Didn't Mean To Make This Long. 
> 
> (If you missed part 1, yesterday's chapter, this definitely won't make as much sense, so please go back and read.)
> 
> Personally, I think this chapter is a little boring [edit: relatively, that is. Unless you are in the mood for world stuff>plot stuff. Then it's probably ok??]. But it's ok I guess because I'm having way too much fun with the next one, so please hold out, I suppose, if you're getting bored? We'll be back to the present timeline next chapter.
> 
> Much love as always, and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> (I have to run to work like, five minutes ago, but I'll reply to comments asap!!!)
> 
>  
> 
> _[UPDATE: OK folks, for additional transparency (and to light a fire under my own butt), I'm gonna start posting Next Chapter Progress updates here (and in future A/Ns), so here's where I'm at as of Sunday:_
> 
> _13.5k words (65% written; 30% edited)]_

***

_June 7th, 528 P.C. – the Past_

 

“Guys! _Guys_! It’s gone!” Shouyou shouted, running across the monorail platform to his teammates. Or maybe leaping would be more accurate, because he was definitely jumping as he moved, or maybe even flying, he felt so weightless and high.

Order O-1153 was gone.

The sunrise was lighting up the raised concrete platform a pretty sparkling white, and the sky sat over them big and bright and blue, and the whole universe was excellent in every possible way as he made his way over to his waiting team and their little cloth bags of gear. Shouyou was ready to take on the world.

“Huh?” Kouji half barked, scrunching his brows, but far more concerning was the way Izumi jumped in front of the alpha, panic seeping into his normally woodsy scent.

“Shou, _Kawashima_ is gone!”

Kouji flicked the beta on the back of the neck before Shouyou could even process the words.

“Oi, don’t say it like he died! And calm down, you’re leaking again,” Kouji ordered, the thick muscles in his arms bunching as he forcibly stilled Izumi’s vibrating form.

Shouyou paused in his run, finally taking in their posture and faces as he dropped his backpack to the floor. Suzuki looked pale, staring towards the twin monorail lines disappearing in the distance, and Kouji’s posture was closed-off and tense.

“Eh?” was the only thing Shouyou could reply with, because he’d obviously misheard.

“He’s, uh, not coming,” the alpha admitted, glancing at the ground. “His mom just pinged me. He came down with a stomach virus. He’ll be ok, but…”

“He- he can still duel, though. He can do it, right?”

“Shouyou.”

The omega shook his head, shook it hard. Because this wasn’t real, and he needed to wake up so that he wouldn’t miss the tournament.

“I threw up twice this morning and I’m here! Message him. Tell him it’ll be ok. It has to be ok.”

“Shouyou…” Izumi whispered pitifully, and that wasn’t what he _needed_. He needed his quorum here before the maglev arrived.

Kouji’s face suddenly got in front of his own, blocking out everything but wide brown eyes and concern. “Hey, come on Shou. Breathe. In and out, Shou. Izumi, a little help?”

Izumi didn’t quite have his scent abilities under control yet, but he was able to inject enough calm into the surrounding air that Shouyou could heave oxygen into his empty lungs.

“Kouji,” Shouyou whispered eventually, pleading for him to do something, anything. This could not be happening.

His friend gave him a grim smile. “I already tried pinging-”

“Shouyou!”

The omega spun around on instinct, tilting his head when a familiar gangly alpha with glasses barreled over to the group.

“Aki?”

“Kouji m-messaged me!” he panted out, hands on his knees as he panted to catch his breath. “I ran a-all the way here! Y-You need another – _hah_ – d-duelist?”

Gods, Shouyou wanted to kiss him right then and there. Doubled over and wheezing, Aki was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. The omega skidded over to him, latching on and deciding that he’d never let go.

“You know your words?” he said into Aki’s shoulder.

“Only fifty or so, so I won’t be much help, but-”

Shouyou slapped a hand over the alpha’s mouth in disbelief. “Aki, you’re _here_!” he cried. “Because of you we can duel!”

“I didn’t know you practiced magic,” Izumi said politely, while Kouji glared and Suzuki shuffled around them, awkward and silent. Not exactly a cohesive dream team, but Shouyou was too thrilled to care.

“Ah, well Maki mentioned a while ago she was interested in magic, and…”

A pained groan tore out of Kouji’s throat, the alpha clutching at his chest like he’d been stabbed. With two awkwardly raised hands that said _I didn’t do anything_ , Aki stepped backwards, moving Shouyou right along with him.

“Thanks, um, for contacting me. I think,” he said eventually, almost gently. Definitely the wrong move, Shouyou knew. Kouji hated pity.

“I did it for Shou. Don’t think this means that you and I are good,” Kouji hissed at the other alpha, prompting Aki to quickly disentangle himself from Shouyou’s hold and scuttle out of Kouji’s reach.

An awkward silence settled around them on the semi-crowded platform, broken by the sound of shrill whirring in the distance. They could hear it long before they saw it, but finally the train broke past the tree line hiding the eastbound track, hurtling towards the platform. It was just as sleek and incredible as Shouyou remembered, zooming through the world at what felt like the speed of light, which was fitting because that’s what he was feeling on the inside just then, too.

He grinned and messaged everyone their ticket confirmations just in time for the train to come to a stop at the platform, making an awful lot of noise for something that levitated above the rail.

“You said he’ll be ok, right? Kawashima?” the omega asked sheepishly as they boarded one of the central cabins. By now he’d calmed down enough to think straight, and shame at his initial reaction was starting to bloom in the spots where panic and then elation had disappeared.

“Yeah, he’s good. Don’t sweat it,” Kouji said, he and Izumi looking at him way too knowingly, way too kind.

With air whooshing out of him in relief, he sank down in a chair to enjoy the ride, eyes glued to the window as the world rushed by. It was a quick enough trip at only about an hour long, and Shouyou spent at least twenty minutes of it vomiting his nerves away in the fancy train restrooms again. But he scrambled back towards his crowded cabin when an announcer indicated their approach to New Tokyo. No way was he going to miss this.

Climbing over Izumi and Kouji, he latched onto the window, the glass wind-chilled and cool against his face.

He couldn’t see much at first, only the green of the trees and white of the mountain range that separated the eastern prefectures, until finally the skyline of the city started to pop into view through a haze of misty clouds.

_A forest_ , was Shouyou’s first thought. A forest of giant-sized blue-green glass and metal stretching towards the sky, so tall that he couldn’t even see their tops among the clouds. The funny shapes of some of them were the next thing he noted, lots of curves and fancy twists that looked more pretty than useful. It was like a totally different planet compared to Hanano’s flatter, more traditional style he’d seen last winter, or even Nakamura’s dusty old concrete, brick, and wood. More flashy. More _fun_.

But he didn’t care about those buildings, not really. Instead he kept his eye trained on the center of the city, gaze darting between the skyscrapers just to try and catch a glimpse of the one thing he really wanted to see.

And there it was. Elevated concrete and crisscrossed metal bars curving high into the air like a dome with the top cut off: the outline of the most famous stadium in the world. He’d seen it in pictures before, of course, and on the V-screen too, but it wasn’t the same. Witnessing it with his own eyes filled him an awe he didn’t realize he could feel towards a simple building, and this was just from far away. He couldn’t even imagine standing on the ground next to it and craning his neck to look up. Or touching it, or dueling in it, or anything else that would prove he’d achieved everything he’d ever wanted.

“The Heaven Stage,” Shouyou whispered, quickly wiping at the window when his breath fogged up the glass. He didn’t want to miss any of this view.

“It’s so high off the ground,” marveled Suzuki, planting his head next to the omega’s.

“There’s a whole regulation-sized field underneath it,” Shouyou told him without turning away. One with its own forest and boulders and cliff formation, even. He’d read that the field crews moved around the trees and other obstructions every day so that no one could ever memorize the layout and get an advantage – just one of the hundreds of incredible facts he’d stored about the place in his brain.

Squinting, he tried to catch a peek of the greenery at ground-level, but before he knew it the train veered north and stole away his view.

“Don’t look like that,” Izumi said, smiling. “You’ll get to play there someday, right? You’ll be back.”

Kouji groaned. “God, you got him sparkling again. He’s gonna bounce so much we derail.”

Aki snickered along (to Kouji’s evident disgust), plopping an arm around Shouyou to keep him as still as he could until the train dropped them off several miles outside the city. Which wasn’t terribly still.

In fact, all four of them had solid grips on his limbs by the time they disembarked a few miles north of the city, eventually just giving up, grabbing his backpack, and carrying him all the way down the street to the tournament complex.

It was a beautiful sight, the fields – gods, they were so _huge_ – sprawled out grassy and green in front of them, all ten dueling areas waiting for him to compete. And the teams! Giant teams, with dozens of players, and real, matching uniforms, and coaches! Everything Shouyou had ever wanted, right in front of him, and he’d never felt more alive. He marveled and _oohed_ and _ahhed_ straight through the registration process, a whirlwind of workers and gear checks and shuttles to the outermost fields, until they were suited up and standing at the entrance of Field D. Gods, he was so ready.

“Whoa. Shouyou’s so excited he’s already sweating,” Aki teased. “Think he’ll make it until the end?”

“Of course I will!” said Shouyou at the same time a familiar, enthusiastic voice behind him called out “Of course he will!”

He paused, stumbling over nothing but the words.

No. _Way_.

“Mom?” he gaped, turning to see her grinning mischievously about ten feet away with her hair done up and her hands on her hips. “How’d you get here?”

“On the maglev, of course. The cabin behind yours. You walked right past me twice on the way to the restroom!” she giggled, swooping in for a hug and twirling them both around.

“You’ll watch for the whole time, right?” he asked once she let him go, maybe perhaps a little secretly pleased that he could finally show off for her. She’d never even seen him use magic before, and now that she could, well.

He wanted to see _pride_ in her eyes, not just excitement.

Playfully she swatted at his arm. “What am I going to do, go home?”

Right. The whole ‘only one train a day to Nakamura’ thing. He frowned.

“Where are you staying tonight?” He’d only asked his friend about five people, but maybe one more wouldn’t be so bad?

“Mr. Izumi set me up with some friends – wholesome, _law-abiding_ friends, Shouyou, don’t give me that look – and told me I could repay him with this.” Grinning, she held up a much nicer looking cell watch than he’d ever seen on his wrist. “We traded for the day so I could record the whole thing! No way am I gonna miss my baby’s first tournament!”

He flushed happily, jumping when he caught Kouji motioning to him from the corner of his eye.

“We have to go warm up now, but I’ll see you after the last event, ok? For us that’ll be Event 4,” he said, nuzzling into her neck before starting to jog backwards and wave.

“Ok, we’ll catch up then,” she called to him. “Message Izumi’s father’s number with where we should meet, ok? And good luck, ba- oi, Shouyou, watch where you’re- oh my gods!”

He’d only barely heard that last part over his own grunt and the feminine groan of the person he’d collided with, more concerned with the fact that he’d basically just plowed someone over and landed dead on top of them, their face in his neck.

Beyond embarrassed, he scrambled backwards on the paved walkway, letting out a meek “eep” when his victim – alpha, he’d been close enough to smell – met him with what looked dangerously like venom in her cold grey eyes. Her whole face felt kind of cold, too, in a severe sort of way. Especially her sharp nose, which made her seem like she was looking down at him even when they were both splayed out on the ground.

“I-I…” _I’m so sorry_ , he tried to force out as his mother rushed over to help the woman up, but her chilly stare had locked his muscles in place. Even his tongue, apparently.

Girls were generally scary.

Female alphas were _terrifying_.

“Hinata Shouyou! Stand your ass up and apologize _this instant_!” his mother hissed at him angrily while skillfully brushing dirt off the woman’s fancy-looking red jacket.

On second thought, female omegas were terrifying too.

He lifted himself as best he could when his legs were still shaking, only to be grabbed on the neck by his mother and forced into a deep bow.

“We are so, _so_ sorry, miss. Please forgive my idiot son. He’s always been hyperactive, and I promise he’ll be getting it from me later.”

Well that was probably a scarier thought than whatever the alpha could do to him. Maybe this would be his last tournament after all.

“It’s quite alright,” the woman said, even her voice frosty. Shouyou peeked up through his hair to see her blank face, making him pretty confident that it was not, in fact, alright.

“Shouyou, _now_ ,” his mother hissed again.

“S-So sorry!” he finally squeaked out, grateful the words came out relatively ungarbled. His tongue felt sticky and thick in his mouth, but at least it was connected to his brain again.

“Are you ok?” his mother asked as she went back to fussing over the woman, finally letting him straighten and pulling him against her side. So he wouldn’t fall over or run away, maybe. Probably both. “Can I help you, or get you anything at all? I’m Hinata Kanna, by the way.”

“Arita. Arita Tomoko.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I’m sorry again about all this.”

“Truly, I’m fine, Hinata. No damage done.” Her tone was still dry, but she didn’t seem insincere when Shouyou really studied her face, so maybe she meant it after all.

His mother smiled. “Are you here for your son or daughter as well?”

“A son of a friend, actually. …I don’t mean to be intrusive, but Hinata, are you alright? Would you like some Supp-X before you duel?” she asked, turning to him.  After a moment she seemed to realize the offer was a little strange, following up with “I’m a doctor at a high school, so even if it’s nonprescription I always have some on hand for emergencies. I can show you my credentials if that would make you more comfortable.”

Shouyou startled a bit, glancing towards his mother in confusion. “Oh! Thanks, but I’m not in cycle?”

“Forgive me, I thought I smelled heat on you.”

Shouyou scratched at his chin, considering. “Oh, I’m still presenting though. Maybe that’s it!”

The speed with which she narrowed her eyes made him flinch backwards, and if he’d been sweating before, he probably looked like a faucet just then.

“That shouldn’t- well, never mind.” She gave him a full body once-over before turning to his mother, something running so quickly through her otherwise empty, hooded eyes that he almost missed it. “Actually, Mrs. Hinata-”

“Miss Hinata, please,” his mother corrected.

“Apologies. Miss Hinata, if you’re headed towards fields D, E, and F, would you like to sit with me?”

“That sounds lovely! I’d love for you to let me make it up to you…” she said, taking the doctor by the hand and dragging her towards the stands as she chatted away.

Shouyou watched them go, wondering what the heck had just happened.

“Whoa, I thought you were a goner for a minute there,” Aki whispered as his team walked over to join him.

“Me too,” Shouyou breathed out, hoping his mother would be ok. Then again, with the bewildered look on the doctor’s face as she stared at his mother’s grip, maybe he should be more worried about _her_. Well, she’d already been caught, so there was really no saving her now. He spun back to his friends. “Hey, do I smell like heat to you?”

Raising his brows, Kouji dove into the omega’s neck for a sniff.

“ _Whoa_ ,” he rumbled against Shouyou’s skin, leaning in even further until Izumi joined him on Shouyou’s other side. “You really do. And it smells fantastic.”

He really wasn’t sure what to think as Aki and Suzuki pulled his other two friends away from his neck. He’d just had a heat two weeks ago, if it could really be called that at this point in the presentation process. Although it _would_ explain the extra vomiting today – a scary thought that didn’t really bode well for dueling.

Aki’s hand waving in front of his face drew his attention to the alpha, who tossed him a spray bottle.

“Here. It blocks your scent enough that you’ll smell unpresented, if it really bothers you. My brother left it in our sports bag. It’s for betas who can’t control their scent abilities yet.”

Perfect. Maybe it would get him to stop sweating so much too if it was a gland thing. He spritzed a healthy amount all over his neck and shoulders before giving the bottle back.

“Thanks!”

The piercing ring of the warmup siren brought the tournament back into focus, so he shook out his tense muscles and let everything else but magic and dueling fade away.

“Ok,” began Shouyou, gathering his team in a huddle, “here’s the schedule and the lineup they gave us. Since it’s middle school, they randomly assigned players to events.”

He held up his wrist and projected an image for the group to see.

“We’re not able to compete in the first or fifth event since we only have five people, obviously, but here’s who’s doing what. Each event is against a different team, so our overall goal is just to get as many points as possible.”

“Won’t it be impossible to be grand champions if we can’t play two of the events?” Suzuki asked.

Shouyou nodded, unconcerned. “Yeah, but there’s an award for winning every match you compete in too. It’s that one that we want.”

The group leaned in then, studying the tiny print of the schedule hovering above the omega’s wrist.

“‘Battle to Submission’?” Aki and Kouji read at the same time, turning to each other with twin faces of pure challenge. Shouyou raised his brows, because even Aki wasn’t immune to posturing, apparently.

In a move far braver then Shouyou expected from the beta, Izumi quickly wedged himself between the two. “You’re trying to make the other team submit, not each other!”

“No, that’s good, save that energy for the match!” Shouyou cried, nodding happily.

Suzuki tugged on his arm. “Wait, I’m in the Ability Spree? Which mini event?”

Squinting, Shouyou zoomed in a little.

“You’re defending our castle. I’m attacking the other team’s, it looks like. Kouji’s on strength display, and Izumi’s got sharpshooting.”

“And Aki and Suzuki and I are doing Obstacle Race together?” Izumi asked, leaning in to get a good look himself.

“Y-Yeah…” Shouyou said slowly, distractedly, as it suddenly dawned on him: he was the only person participating in just one event.

“Should we talk to the refs or something?” asked Aki. The look on his face clearly said he’d realized the same thing.

“No, it’s too late for reassignment. We’re supposed to be warming up.”

“…You sure?”

“Of course! I’ll get to duel tons in high school, and then I can pick which events I want to!” It wasn’t a lie, either, and the prospect was getting him pumped up again. “So let’s go do this!”

“Yeah!” they cried as one, as a team, and that feeling carried Shouyou all the way onto their first field.

Warming up was mostly stretches since none of them knew their evocation word, yet, and a little bit of Shouyou teaching Aki the penalty rules as he thought of them.

“No use of excessive magical force.”

“Don’t step out of the field.”

“Try not to have any emittance make contact with other players’ heads.”

“Oh, no emittance higher than fifteen feet in the air!”

Aki followed along, looking more and more panicky as the list grew.

“We’re totally gonna get disqualified, aren’t we?” Kouji snickered loudly.

The other alpha turned to give him a warning growl, which naturally was loud enough to attract the attention of a sideline referee.

“…I think you might be right,” Izumi whispered against the ref’s sharp blow of a warning whistle.

“And no displays of aggression outside of the matches,” Shouyou awkwardly finished reciting, hating the truth in Kouji's words.

A different ref blew her whistle, motioning for all players to vacate the field.

It was time to start.

Izumi leaned in close as they watched Kouji and Aki jog onto the center of the field, gripping Shouyou’s arm so tightly it would probably bruise. “Who are they up against?”

“I think it was some private school from New Tokyo with a long name,” Suzuki answered. “Oh, and you’re leaking again, Izumi.”

But it didn’t really matter in the end which nameless school they faced. The siren sounded, and so the event began. And then ended, nearly as quickly.

It was clear that fifty was probably a generous estimate for the number of words Aki knew, and even Kouji’s physical strength from varsity chasing wasn’t enough to combat two far more experienced magic users. Subdued and pinned to the ground in less than two minutes, they hadn’t stood a chance.

“Good match,” Shouyou said after the whistle was blown and his friends trudged off the field. And he meant it. They’d done their best, and they’d done it for _him_ , after all. “Let’s get ready for the next event, yeah?”

“Good match,” Shouyou said when his friends exited event two, having lost the Obstacle Race by three whole minutes and accrued two penalties while doing it. They officially had negative ten points, but it was ok, the omega announced. They’d make up for it.

“Good match,” Shouyou said when Izumi missed all but one target in the sharpshooting event. He’d really improved his precision, though, and the omega told him so.

“Good match,” Shouyou said when Kouji couldn’t move the boulder as far as his opponent, not knowing any of his words for _rock_ , _earth_ , or _move_. They’d figure it out together if he wanted, the omega assured him.

And “Good match,” Shouyou said to a tearful Suzuki, who had barely been able to lift an energy shield before it was voided and their castle taken. He was better than Shouyou when he’d first started, the omega admitted to him, so he’d only improve with time.

Shouyou stared at the scoreboard projection before the final Ability Spree event. _Nakamura MS: -10_ , it read in a soothing blue.

(They may not have earned any points yet, but if he thought about it, they were really only just beginning. They’d win their last event, and then they’d win every event after that, from high school all the way into the pros. Straight to the top.

It hurt less, losing did, when he thought about it like that.)

They hadn’t lost everything, though. There was still sub-event four of the Ability Spree, his body reminded him loudly. His heart began to pound, and his lungs began to heave, and his blood began to speed through his veins so loudly he was sure he could hear it. _You’re up next_ , they said.

“You’re up in ten minutes, Shou,” Izumi echoed to him, startled when he ran past the group, straight into the bathrooms to throw up. He’d been hoping his nerves were all puked out on the train ride.

He’d been wrong.

Nearly half their break later he stumbled out of his fancy stall, washed his hands, and shuffled back to his team.

“My stomach,” he croaked, holding it tight as he doubled over. But he didn’t feel nervous anymore, just kind of vaguely in pain. Which could only mean one thing. “I’m fine now… probably? It’s just because I’m presenting.” His stomach took the opportunity to gurgle again, as if to say _no, you’re really_ not _fine._

Izumi ducked down to inspect his face. “Hey, are you sure you’re gonna be ok to duel? You’ve been looking pretty pale all day, and now you’re throwing up too?”

“Don’t forget the train and the times he told us about in the morning. He’s puked like five times today.”

“ _Eh?_ Shouyou, that’s beyond normal presentation side effects…” Izumi tried to reason, looking emboldened when Suzuki nodded beside him, horrified.

“ _You_ try growing new organs and then tell me what all the side effects are,” replied Shouyou a little poutily, because there was no way they understood just how much it all sucked. How could they? _They_ didn’t feel stabbing in their midsections and taste acid in their throats so often that it started to become normal. _He_ had, and he was just really over it.

But the cruelest part? The cruelest part of it all was that for all his pain these last several months, what did he get? Not even a lousy sixteenth of an inch in height. Definitely not the growth spurt everyone promised he’d have.

In short, presenting was literally the worst.

“No, actually, I’d really rather not,” Kouji replied, shuddering. Shouyou rolled his eyes – alphas and betas and even girl omegas had it so _easy_.

“Um, maybe we should get to the last field, now?” Suzuki said, squirming. “For the last sub-event?”

An excellent point. Suzuki was really shaping up to be captain material when Shouyou graduated. He projected the event details just to check their location one last time, anticipation bubbling up. His turn.

“Eh?” Aki said, reading over the omega’s shoulder. “They’re from Hananoken? This is an eastern prefecture tournament. Is that even allowed?”

“Last year’s champions are allowed to sign up for any tournament nationally,” Izumi informed him, blushing when Kouji gave him a look. “I had some time last week, so I read up on all the rules.”

Kouji laughed, part manic and part dry, somehow. “Oh. Awesome. Great. Just, yeah. So, where are these _former champions_ Shou’s about to face?”

Izumi pointed to a group of duelists with blue padding, sitting across a grassy quad area. “They’re over there, I think.”

“Oh my gods,” Aki cried, “I actually have to agree with Kouji on this one. Shouyou, what did you get yourself into?”

Shouyou gave him a funny look. “Eh? Dueling, obviously.”

Aki just shook his head. “We’re going against them? You’re going against _him_?”

He pointed at some tall guy that Shouyou could see from across the quad, looking broad, muscular, and quietly confident from the back. Frowny and pissed off is what he looked like front the front when he spun around and snarled at a few of the boys sitting down next to him. They flinched, scrambling away towards another huddle of teammates.

Sure, the team looked impressive with its uniforms – expensive-looking and real, matching uniforms, Shouyou noted jealously – and its sheer size, but Shouyou wasn’t too concerned. He turned back to his friends.

“Just because they’re tall and muscly and kind of scary-looking for middle schoolers doesn’t mean they know magic any better than we do! We can take them!” declared Shouyou confidently.

“Exactly! Maybe our lexicons are better!” Kouji added, sidling up to Shouyou and narrowing his eyes at Aki.

The alpha stared at them both.

“Are you- are you serious? You really don’t know who that is?”

Izumi leaned towards his ear, not that he really lowered his voice any. “Shou doesn’t have internet. And Kouji just doesn’t care.”

Aki’s mouth made a little ‘o’ shape before he popped it shut.

“Guys, that’s Kageyama Tobio. _Kageyama_.”

Shouyou squinted, trying to remember why that sounded so familiar.

“Hah?” Kouji’s jaw fell towards the ground. “Kageyama, like the owner of Dynamics Solutions? And Kageyama Pharmaceuticals? And, like, half the government?”

Oh. _That_ Kageyama. Shouyou was pretty sure he’d heard Natsu and her friends fawning all over an alpha son more than a few times too, and he wondered if it was that guy over there.

“I think it’s his parents who own those, not him, technically,” Suzuki pointed out, gesturing to the teen across the grass.

Izumi sighed, wistful and longing. “They say his family was royalty in the old days.”

Whoa. Shouyou looked back over the figure, deciding he could totally see it. He had that air around him, a power stance full of energy that screamed _I’m so important I don’t even consciously think about it anymore_. There was a ring of open space around him now too, like his teammates were afraid to get too close. At least until a shorter player hurried over to hand him a drink and a towel with a bow then scurried away.

(Kings and queens and emperors didn’t exist anymore, not in any of the three countries left, but if they did Shouyou thought they might look a little bit like that.)

Aki hummed. “Well he’s definitely royalty in the magic community. Maki has a digi-pic of him on the cover of _Magic Monthly Junior_ in her room.” Kouji startled at the information, alternating his fierce glower between Aki and the other teen’s back as Aki continued. “He’s supposed to be a prodigy or something. Reached Class 2 at _thirteen_. They call him the K-”

A shrill siren went off three times, startling the group and sending Shouyou’s heart into overdrive at the thought of what it meant.

The last event for them. Their last chance to win any points.

“It doesn’t matter who he is or what they call him. I’m fast, and I’m really good with my language style. If I do my best then I can win this!”

“That’s true!” Izumi agreed. “You know what, more than a thousand words now? That’s really incredible for someone who learned everything by themselves, especially at our age.”

Shouyou could practically feel his cheeks pinken, pleased at the compliment. And besides, with a team that size, who was to say they’d even face him on the field? If he’d already been used up in earlier events then Aki was scaring him for no reason.

“Up next on Field F: Event 4, Ability Spree. Nakamura versus Kitagawa Daiichi,” a robotic announcer called through the speakers. “Sub-Event 4: Castle Round 2. Worth 5 points. Defending the castle for Kitagawa Daiichi is eighth-grader Kageyama Tobio. Attacking the castle for Nakamura is eighth-grader Hinata Shouyou.”

Oh. Well. He stood by his earlier statement, then. Even when Izumi shot him a terrified glance and Aki patted his shoulder, informing the omega he’d pray for him. Especially then, because now he had his friends to prove wrong, too, on top of what felt like all of Nakamura. At least his mom was somewhere out there on his side.

Shouyou grit his teeth and walked onto the field for his first and last time in middle school.

“What class are you?”

He yelped at the voice right behind his head, jumping forwards and turning around to see one Kageyama Tobio.

Up this close it was easy to get a whiff of his scent. And yep, definitely alpha.

“E-Eh?”

The alpha rolled his (pretty) blue eyes, impatient. “I said what class of magic user are you? I’m Class 2, Rank A.”

Rank _A_ of Class 2?

Doubt started to creep in, so Shouyou shoved it aside. Nothing mattered but their match. Not their backgrounds, not their ranks, nothing.

“Class 4. Rank C,” he answered before pointing a finger at the center of the alpha’s chest. “But don’t go easy on me, got it?”

“Why would I?” Kageyama asked, sounding genuinely confused, head tilt and all. His expression quickly dropped to a scowl, and he seemed to be talking more to himself, or perhaps even someone else, when he said, “Stupid ideas like that are how good duelists end up losing matches they shouldn’t. The event isn’t over until time’s run out. I’m not letting my guard down until then.”

Oh. Well that was almost touching, in an intimidating kind of way.

But before he could reply Kageyama had already spun and started heading towards the wooden structure he’d have to defend. Shouyou’s eyes followed him as he went, a little distracted by the way he moved across the field. He could really only call it stalking, or maybe slinking, but there was too much power in his steps for that, Shouyou decided. Prowling?

(It was a little bit hot. Kageyama was a little bit (very) hot, but there was definitely a cosmic rule out there somewhere about not finding dueling opponents attractive, so he squashed that down quicker than he had his earlier doubt.

Also Kageyama was a jerk, Shouyou reminded himself, thinking about the way he’d snarled and snapped at his teammates in the quad, and not in the joking kind of way like Kouji sometimes did.

A hot jerk was still a jerk.)

The ref motioned him backwards to his starting point, a certain distance away from the castle it would be his job to attack in the next five minutes. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself.

There were two ways to win this, he knew: take the castle or destroy it. Taking the castle, of course, would involve both displacing Kageyama and then reaching the center of the upper floor.

…Destroy the castle, Shouyou decided. He’d have to destroy it.

Earth, fire, mind, whatever he had to use. It was a small, two-story wooden fort, and Shouyou vowed there would be nothing left of it when he was done. He only had to get around its defender, and victory was his.

Standing atop his wooden castle, the alpha in front of him evoked, a flurry of blue light that whooshed around him. The display was _super cool_ , Shouyou grudgingly admitted, but also an issue, because Shouyou hadn’t seen any words or movements.

And that meant Kageyama was a mental magic user, and Shouyou might be a little bit screwed.

But he forgot all about it, all about his rising panic when the alpha’s evocation disappeared, and he simply stood and stared the omega down.

(They weren’t close, particularly. But Shouyou could see his eyes just fine. The blue in them _burned_ , and in that moment he knew. He knew that Kageyama felt the exact same way about dueling as he did; he knew it in his bones.

That one look in his eyes had been enough.

In a way Shouyou never seen in anyone else, not his classmates or teammates or even the players on the V-screen, it was obvious:

To Kageyama Tobio, dueling was _everything_. And Shouyou was a little bit in awe.)

The siren sounded, and Shouyou ran, eyes steady on the alpha in front of him. If he was a mental duelist then Shouyou had to be on guard in every way – he’d get absolutely no warning of any kind of attack coming.

A theory proven right when the ground started shaking beneath his feet, causing him to stumble around for footing. With a planted foot and a twist of his upper torso he uttered _Earth, move_ , because two could play at that game.

Or they could if his magic would emit in the direction he actually wanted it to instead of thirty feet to the left. But he didn’t know a lot of location words, yet. So he tried it again and again while he stumbled around, hoping he would get lucky and then perking up when the castle began to quake. For a moment the alpha was distracted, so Shouyou ran some more.

Straight into a gleaming yellow wall of energy.

It tingled a bit when they collided, but it gave Shouyou the chance to try his utterance unhindered, solid ground beneath his feet this time.

_Earth_ , he said with his foot. _Move_ , he said with a twist of his upper body. He added a little bit of flair this time, an extra flick of his arms to make the utterance more of a plea than a command. _Please work_ , he tried to convey to whatever part of the universe magic came from. _Please help me out_.

Nothing happened.

So he tensed up, waiting for the blowback and pleased when it didn’t happen. Neither did any more attacks, so he moved into the utterance again, words like muscle memory as he went through the motions.

Still nothing.

And then he looked up at the castle and saw Kageyama staring at him with an intensity that bordered on concerning, and everything made sense. Testing his theory, Shouyou dropped into the motion again, watching Kageyama plant his foot and twist his own body in a perfect copy. It would be followed by a void command, Shouyou knew, one that no one else but the alpha could hear: nullification.

The alpha was nullifying his magic. He’d known Shouyou maybe a minute and he’d already perfectly observed and mimicked two of his gestures. Perfect timing, perfect style, even the slight shift in tone. He’d caught it all.

Incredible. Kageyama Tobio truly was incredible.

Except Kageyama couldn’t void what he couldn’t see. Shouyou didn’t really have any blocking mechanism – he couldn’t play with smoke or energy yet, really, so he would use his last weapon: speed.

The energy wall had dissipated so he took his chance, rushing the castle again. Moving faster and faster, incorporating his movements with his run this time so they were harder to distinguish, he approached, switching up his utterance as well. _Trees, fall_ , he said, praying the alpha was competent enough to avoid being seriously hurt.

He was, but it was the distraction Shouyou needed as Kageyama had to pause what he was doing and now fight at least three trees threatening to topple onto the fort.

_Rocks, go_ , Shouyou tried next, a circular motion of his hips and a flick of his right arm. He got a pebble to move. _Rocks, go_ , he tried, and this time a boulder flew. Backwards. _At him_.

(Curse his stupid, small lexicon.

Without words, he couldn’t get into specifics. Without specifics, his magic was as unpredictable as his little sister’s moods.)

Shouyou felt it as he heard three trees crash harmlessly to the ground – a slight fuzziness in his head, a brief moment of dizzy. Not a good sign.

It was far too early to be feeling magic fatigue, so he ignored it and pushed on.

Tried dozens of different attacks that he could think of now that he was reasonably close to the castle: weakening the wooden structure of the fort. Attacking the foundation with rocks. Setting the base on fire. Knocking it all over with wind. One after the other, utterance after utterance so quick that it probably looked like he was dancing to an upbeat song.

And it was kind of, sort of working. Kageyama had obviously switched from offense to defense, and the thought alone bolstered his spirit for the entire next minute.

Until the omega fell, literally. Shouyou fell over, another dizzy spell hitting him too hard to overcome. Kageyama took advantage, creating a massive earthen wall in front of him before he could even stand back up. It spanned the entire length of the field and the entire height of playable area, completely blocking his Shouyou’s view before it started to _move_. It shifted, backing him up further and further until he was seriously scared he was going to be pushed out of bounds.

He wasn’t – he found a spot, eventually, where Kageyama couldn’t repair the wall as quickly as he commanded it to fall – but the fear was there, and the thrill of it all, and so he laughed.

Because Kageyama hadn’t been lying. He was serious. He was taking Shouyou seriously, giving it his all. Had been from the start. It didn’t matter in the end, of course. Precision, power, speed, lexicon – this guy had it _all_. Shouyou was going to lose, but he was going to go down fighting in the end.

So he _smiled_. And Kageyama’s eyes widened.

(That look, that shock, sent shivers up Shouyou’s spine.

Surprising that duelist, surprising someone who’d even said he’d have his guard up – it felt _indescribable_.)

Maybe it was a mistake, that smile, but it seemed to light something in Kageyama. And that was fine. Shouyou wanted to face the alpha at his peak. Losing any other way would just hurt.

‘Peak performance’ was certainly a good term for what happened next.

Magic didn’t really work like that, but it was almost like the alpha had been storing it, stashing it away and waiting to unleash it until now. And gods, Shouyou would _kill_ to know what words the alpha was using, because the tidal wave of magical energy that stormed over the field was like nothing he’d ever seen.

It was a series of impenetrable walls, in the end, that did it. Kageyama’s combination of voiding entire areas of magic, moving the earth, and surrounding the castle with walls of raw energy and jagged rocks and split wood from trees. All at the same. Freaking. Time.

(This kid was the same age as Shouyou. A _kid_. This was what Shouyou could’ve been if he’d had help, was the thought he tried desperately not to voice in his mind.

But It didn’t matter where Shouyou started if he got to the top someday, somehow. Shouyou’s journey was his own.)

The power was too much, coming at him from every angle and impossible to void when it was all mental. He couldn’t move in any direction without running into an obstruction, and he didn’t trust his magic long-range to not start a forest fire or hurt his opponent with its unpredictability. He was finished, cornered into letting the clock run out.

Thirty seconds left, then fifteen, then five.

And then the whistle blew, and Shouyou’s first dueling tournament ended for him in less than two hours, with zero points earned and ten points lost.

Breathing hard, he took a look around at the destruction the two of them had caused. Toppled trees, broken ground, splintered wood and overturned rocks. Evidence of a battle everywhere, everything jagged and broken except the one area Shouyou needed to be. The castle stood tall and proud, unbroken.

He didn’t even remember walking off the field.

“You looked great out there, Shou!” Izumi shouted, rushing him.

“Yeah! You held a Class 2 user up for a solid thirty seconds there in the middle! That’s insane!”

Thirty seconds. One whole, solid chunk of thirty seconds. It had been the best and worst half minute he’d ever experienced.

“Good matches, guys,” he said in between sniffles, whacking each of his teammates on their backs as they did and said the same to him. Their best hadn’t been enough, and yet it would have to be enough for now, even if it stung like hell.

(They’d lost. They’d lost _badly_.

And yet…

Shouyou had lost, but it had kind of felt amazing. If victory felt even better than that, then he was going to chase that feeling until he found it again, again and again and again.)

“We’ll do better next time,” Izumi said offhandedly, like it was a given, and then Shouyou immediately brightened. Because it _was_. He remembered the rush he’d felt that morning outside of Sakanoshita’s Electronics, and he grabbed his friends so aggressively that they nearly fell over as a huddle.

“We will! We will because I’ll get to duel as much as I want!”

“Eh?”

“Order O-1153! That stupid law that let Playmates choose the omega’s club! It was abolished this morning!”

Aki gave him a crooked smile. “Yeah, it was all over the news this morning. Everyone knows.”

“He doesn’t have internet,” Izumi gently reminded him.

“I’m free!” cried Shouyou, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

He waited for a few moments for them to celebrate with him, because that’s what friends did. Shouyou was ecstatic for Kouji when he’d made varsity on the chasing team. Shouyou supported Izumi when he’d run for class representative, despite the fact that he was literally only in school half the time. They were his _friends_.

So why were none of them meeting his eyes all of a sudden?

“Why aren’t you guys excited for me?” he asked, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice. “I- I can duel forever and ever now, all the way through college!”

“You didn’t see the rest of the report, did you,” Kouji said flatly, in a tone he instantly hated. Like he was about to clip the wings Shouyou had suddenly grown. Painful and hard, his heart began picking up speed.

“Shouyou, the repeal was passed, but by a split Diet.”

Silence sank into every bit of their little protective huddle until it was too heavy for him to bear and his shoulders dipped under the weight. He stared at Izumi unblinkingly.

“W-Which house dissented?” But he already knew the answer.

“The Senate,” Izumi confirmed, and Shouyou had been wrong about one thing, at least. It didn’t just feel like his wings had been clipped. They’d been brutally, savagely ripped from his back, and now he was plummeting towards the ground below. “Sorry, Shou. But it won’t go into effect until January of 530 P.C.”

“No,” Shouyou said hollowly. “No way.”

Kouji rubbed his back. “Hey, you can still find a Playmate who doesn’t suck though, right? Someone in Nakamura’s definitely gonna let you duel. Not everyone there’s an asshole.”

But Shouyou wasn’t listening anymore, was stuck deep inside an echo of _530 P.C., 530 P.C._ Two years too late.

But no. No, no, no no _no_ , they had to be wrong. They were wrong, because that just couldn’t be true. He didn’t have two years, he had closer to six months.

He stumbled over to a stone bench to try and sit down in one of the lowest moments of his life, which of course meant that who else would he stumble into besides Kageyama freaking Tobio.

The alpha stopped to growl at him before recognition flashed through his eyes, and the growl turned into a steady glare.

“S-Sorry,” Shouyou muttered, looking away.

The alpha clicked his tongue as he moved by, muttering “Such a waste.”

And nope, he was not going to let that one pass, not as fury turned his blood into fire. Letting his body move for him, he ended up back in front of the alpha.

“What did you just say to me?”

Kageyama glared down at him. “I said it’s a waste. You’re wasting your potential like this. What have you been doing all this time, just messing around? Learning your language for fun? It’s a waste.”

Shouyou positively _burned_.

“I’ve worked hard every day for the last _three years_ and you have _no idea_ -”

The sound of laughter walking by cut off his rant, coming from a couple of Kageyama’s teammates who hadn’t noticed the pair squaring off beside them.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a team get negative points,” one laughed to the other as they passed, clutching at his belly like it was all one big joke. Like Shouyou’s team was a joke.

Closing his eyes, Shouyou sucked in a calming breath. And when he opened them, the only things he saw were victory and Kageyama Tobio.

“It doesn’t matter what we scored today. The next time we face you we’ll win.”

“Don’t say that when you can’t even win a single event,” Kageyama scoffed at him, so easily. Disregarding his promise as nothing. “You’ll never beat us in a high school match, not like this. I doubt we’ll even face each other again unless you get stronger. And until you do, don’t go making victory declarations either. It’s insulting.”

There was a hint of disappointment there, as if Shouyou had let him down somehow, and it made him want to bare his teeth. A prodigy, Aki had said. Well a prodigy wouldn’t freaking understand. Wouldn’t know how hard Shouyou had struggled, or how hard he was going to have to struggle, now that… now that he’d have to find a willing Playmate after all. _Gods_.

Black spots were starting to fizzle around in his vision again, and he breathed deeply just to get his stupid body under control. So he breathed in once, twice, and again until he knew what he had to do.

(He was going to make it. It wasn’t going to end like this, not when he had so far to go.)

He sniffed, wiping at the tears that had started to sneak down his face. If Kageyama had ignored his other promise, he sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to ignore this one. Shouyou would make sure of it, as he squared up to the alpha and made his vow.

“Then I’ll practice. I’ll train, and I’ll learn my language until I’m as good as you. And then I’m going to be the one to take you down.”

The words faded into nothing but it didn’t feel like they were gone. Instead it felt like the start of something. His ultimate challenge, his new focus: because if this kid was one of the best like they said, then Shouyou couldn’t rise to the top until he’d surpassed him.

Kageyama grunted and spun around, stalking away, but it didn’t feel like a complete dismissal that time.

(And Shouyou absolutely hated how excited that made him feel.)

“Hey, are you o-ok?” Suzuki asked shakily, popping out from behind the bench with the rest of the team. The hesitant softness in his tone ruined everything again, making him feel like crap. (Like they thought he was weak.) And maybe he was, dammit, but he’d get better. He would. He-

It hit him then all at once, the whole day. Their loss, his frustration, the delayed repeal, all of it. Tears started falling and mixing with his sweat and his snot until every bit of him felt wet and disgusting. And then he started to feel a little bit too hot, even as little chills started to sneak across his arms, and the world started to feel very wrong. He swayed a bit on his feet, grateful when his friends held him up. Just like they always did.

“Shouyou, don’t cry! It’ll be o- holy _shit_! Your ear! Guys, look at his ear!”

“Oh my gods. Your ear is bleeding, Shouyou, and shit, your nose too. That’s a lot of blood. Oh my gods, someone get a doctor! Where’s the first aid office? Someone, _help_!”

“Eh?” he slurred as the world began to blur. Everything became a little bit too much, all the shouting and people jostling him and yelling his name. He might’ve even heard his mom in the mix, but he just wasn’t sure. He wasn’t really sure about anything.

Because the world was going dark, and everything around him was too much.

So he let go.

 

*

 

The first thing Shouyou thought when he woke up was that maybe his old teacher had been right all along about aliens being a thing.

Because obviously he’d been abducted, since no actual human would make a room this white and shiny and sterile and _perfect_. It was wrong, somehow, with every surface sleek, sparkly, and pristine.

Too pristine. And empty, very empty. He didn’t like it at all.

His next thought was the realization that he couldn’t move his legs, followed by a brief and body-melting panic, because _he was a gestural magic user_ , followed by a third realization that oh, that was just Natsu and his mom slumped over the lower half of his body. And then confusion, because when had Natsu come and joined them?

And finally, he realized that something was very, very not right.

(Besides the fact that all three of them had been abducted by aliens, apparently, and he was just really not sure he’d be able to get them all out.

Crap, could people even use magic in space? Could he use space magic? Maybe he was about to discover the world’s sixth affinity! Actually, maybe this wasn’t so bad, except it really was.)

A few curious sniffs and he’d figured out the problem: the room didn’t just look weird. It _smelled_ weird. Bitter and burned, it itched at the insides of his nose, made him want to twitch and squirm. It was a distressed scent, one he knew well.

His mom’s.

Stiffly he reached over to squeeze her hand, giving her as best of a grin as he could when every part of his body felt like it had been burned alive.

“Oh, _Shouyou_ ,” she sobbed when she saw he was awake, clearly trying to pull herself together for his sake. Not that it was working, with her blotchy face and bloodshot eyes. Obviously she’d been crying. A lot.

“Don’t w-worry, mom” he croaked out, swallowing and wetting his lips so it didn’t feel like he was getting stabbed in the neck with each sound before continuing, “I’m gonna get us out of here.”

“But why would-”

“I won’t let the aliens hurt you.”

His mom stared wide eyed for a moment before bursting into wet, choked giggles. It was weird to hear such a happy sound when she still looked like she’d come from a family burial, but Shouyou didn’t mind. She covered her face with one hand and stroked through his hair with the other.

“Oh my gods. I wish I’d been recording that. They told me you might be a little out of it from the medication, but I didn’t really believe them.”

A sting of betrayal cut right into his gut, sudden and sharp. “They gave me medication?”

He needed to calm down, though – there was probably a perfect reasonable explanation. His mom would never willingly let them hurt him. Maybe she’d been threatened, or Natsu had been threatened, or-

She cleared her throat, the smile slipping away. “Shouyou, baby, you’re in the hospital. On Earth. No aliens here, sorry.”

The… hospital?

She gestured to the wall behind him, where there was- oh. It was one of those fancy tech wall thing’s he’d only seen on the V-screen, all digitized and filled with colors and numbers he didn’t understand. A couple graphs beeped softly at him from above his head, and he could at least recognize the squiggly pattern made by one of them: a heartbeat monitor. Like a normal, human hospital might have.

Well that made a lot more sense, he figured, as an embarrassed flush flittered over his neck. He didn’t know what medication he was on at the moment but it was terrible and he was never going to use it again.

Hopefully he’d never have to come here again at all. He’d never been to a hospital before, but this definitely wasn’t what he’d expected. The bed he was on was comfortable enough, but that was about the only good thing he could sense so far. The rest of it was… off.

“It’s so. Uh, clean,” he said eventually, because his mother was looking at him expectantly. She huffed out a small laugh.

“Well, yes. That’s generally pretty important in a hospital. You know, where they do surgeries and treat sick people.”

And _that_ was an alarming statement if he’d ever heard one, as someone who was currently lying in a bed in a hospital.

“Am I- am I sick? Mom, what happened at the tournament? Why am I here?”

He remembered feeling hot all over, then cold, then _wrong_ , and then everything went black. None of which seemed like particularly good signs, and especially not all at once.

Panic started to bubble up, and he gripped the sheets tightly enough that he wondered if maybe the wrinkles would stay there forever.

“Oh, baby, no, you’re ok. Y-You… you’re gonna be ok, Shou,” she said very unconvincingly as she burst into tears and buried her face in his torso.

Oh gods, he was dying, wasn’t he? He wasn’t even fifteen yet. How could he die when he wasn’t even fifteen yet? And he hadn’t won a dueling tournament yet, or made it to the Heaven Stage, or matched the Little Giant in skill, or-

“I promise,” his mom cried, holding onto his arm like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground. “I promise you’ll be ok.”

Which was making him panic even worse, because that absolutely _did not_ sound like he was going to be ok. So of course Natsu chose that moment to shoot awake, take one look at the both of them and then join in the crying.

By this point he was praying to all the gods out there that his time left to live was closer to years than months or days, but it was honestly looking worse and worse for him, and his skin was getting colder and colder and his heart faster and faster and-

“Hinata?” a voice came through a wide white door he hadn’t noticed in one corner of the room. “I’m coming in, ok?”

A young, stocky beta walked in wearing what looked like a papery green outfit and a smile. Shouyou didn’t have to be near him to know he was a beta – the moment he’d entered the room, the air had filled with something soothing and forest-y, hitting Shouyou’s system like another dose of his meds. His muscles immediately relaxed, and he sank into the bed.

“Sorry if that feels a little strong right now,” he said, waving his hand as if he could point to the scent he’d just released, “but it’s procedure. I’m your nurse, Matsuda Daiki. How are you feeling?”

Like he’d been hit by an auto, or five or ten? Like all the moisture had been sucked from his body and he was withering away?

“Not good.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Your take-home prescription for pain medication should be available very soon. Now, our sensors indicate that your heart rate was rising rapidly. In cases such as those I’m required to do a full-body scan. Do you mind laying still for a moment?”

Shouyou shook his head as if he’d had a choice, watching when a blue display stretched out from the tech wall and stopped in front of the nurse. He wasn’t sure where the scanning part came in, but whatever Mr. Matsuda saw seemed to satisfy him and he closed the display.

“Everything looks good. Your blood test came back with nothing except the expected, and blood pressure is back to normal. Reproductive hormone levels are still fluctuating but it’s within normal range for someone who’s presenting. And that means that as soon as you feel good enough, you’re free to begin the discharge process. Now, do you have any questions for me about your condition? Or would you like the discharge doctor to handle further explanation?”

Condition? Before he could say that yes, his first question was “ _what condition?”_ , his mother cleared her throat.

“I haven’t told him yet. But I think I can handle it alone. Th- thank you,” she gasped out.

“Of course. Would you like me to send for Dr. Arita at all?”

His mother only shook her head, strategically landing a mass of brown hair in front of her face. She’d always hated to have other people see her cry, Shouyou knew.

“I’ll give you some privacy then-”

“Actually, um,” she interrupted, “I’m so sorry, and I know this isn’t your job, but would you mind walking my daughter to the food court? We weren’t sure where it is.”

“Ah, of course. Why don’t you come with me, miss?” the nurse said brightly, smiling as Natsu shuffled after him out of the room.

Shouyou turned to his mom as soon as the door clicked.

“Condition?” What a nice way to say terminal disease. And then another thought hit him. “Wait, Arita? Wasn’t that the lady you met at the tournament?”

His mother sniffled hard and wiped at her face, taking a few deep, shuddering breaths.

“Yeah. Her family owns this hospital, can you believe it? I’ve been thanking the gods since yesterday that we met her. She was able to have you airlifted here far quicker than I would’ve thought, and- a-and I don’t even want to think about what might’ve happened if she hadn’t been there. If you hadn’t run into her. If we hadn’t sat together and talked, and, just. Talk about divine intervention. I might start going to the t-temple.”

She exhaled deeply, probably trying to get her breathing back under control just as Shouyou’s was starting to spiral away. His heart was back to hammering, too, as the new details sunk in. How bad of shape was he in to need _airlifted_?

“What’s wrong with me?” he whispered, feeling so, _so_ cold. The warmth of his mother’s hand against his was almost painful.

She smiled at him, soft and sincere, and it was the first time he’d started to feel a little bit better since he woke up.

“Your body just got a little overworked earlier, a combination of presenting, being upset, and… and, well, it caused some minor bleeding and seizing. But I guess the most important thing is you- _gods_. You have a disease, baby. That’s what the doctors told me. It’s permanent but it’s treatable, and it’s definitely not contagious, so I don’t want you to worry, ok?”

She held up a tablet, and Shouyou felt himself squinting to see all the tiny, blurry words.

“‘Komita Disease,’” his mom read. “It affects the reproductive system, makes it go a little wild. But it shouldn’t interfere with normal life as long as you’re medicated, they said. It just might make your cycles more intense. They told me you’ll definitely be bedridden even on medication, but that you should be otherwise pretty okay, and. And they gave me all this info, and I can barely remember it all…” she trailed off, looking anywhere and everywhere but him.

He tugged on her hand, waiting until she turned to him to as his only and most important question. If he wasn’t dying, and whatever this is wouldn’t affect him too much, then he _needed_ to know:

“Can I still duel?”

It brought a small smile to her face. “Of course, when you’re not in cycle. Of course you can still duel, baby.”

“Then it’s fine, right? I can still live normally and duel, so it’s fine.”

She snorted, hands flying to her face when a little more snot dripped out.

“I should’ve led with the dueling thing, huh,” she said, wiping at her face with tissues from his bedside.

_Instead of the crying and panicking? Yeah_ , Shouyou wanted to say. But she already seemed stressed enough, so he held it in.

“We’ll read through the file pretty thoroughly at home, okay? We can leave when you feel up to it, so… how do you feel, baby? Really? I want to know, because-” she sobbed again, snatching her hand away so she could cover her face “-I need to know how I missed this.”

“Mom,” he tried, but she waved him silent.

“Why didn’t you tell me how much pain you’d been in lately? How often you were throwing up? The doctor told me that your esophagus could’ve been permanently d-damaged. Baby, I could’ve told you that’s not normal,” she choked out.

“I thought you, um, knew,” he stammered out, regretting it immediately when she started crying even harder. “Not that I’m blaming you or anything! There’s seriously no way this is your fault, mom.”

“It _is_ though. It’s genetic,” she cried, and he had no idea what to say to that. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I didn’t notice.”

She seemed to gather her breath then, wiping her face and taking back his hand.

“You really will be ok. We’ll get you on the medication as soon as possible. We’re lucky the disease is so well researched – it means the medication is too. The doctor told me the side effects are negligible as long as you never miss a dose. Ah, it’s a daily dose,” she told him when he opened his mouth to ask.

He’d been prepared to hear monthly, or once a cycle, or every two months or something, but daily?

“Hah? Every day? Mom, that sounds… expensive.”

She gave him a shaky smile, thumbing at his cheek.

“I don’t want you to worry about a thing, ok?”

“But-”

“I mean it. I- I have a way to take care of it. Dr. Arita, see, she offered me a job. Well, actually she offered me the chance to apply for a job. One that will come with medical benefits for the whole family.”

Well that was a little bit insane.

“Where? Doing what?” were the first of about a million questions that came to mind, far more than he even had about Koma- Komu… Kom-something, or whatever he had. He’d read the file later like his mother said.

“It’s for a general maintenance position at a private boarding school system, elementary through high school. Aoyama, south of Hanano.”

“Boarding school? If you got the job, would- would I transfer there? Natsu too?”

She nodded, biting her lip. “Exactly. The dorms are only open to high schoolers, so Natsu would stay with me in staff housing. It’s a few miles away from the high school, so we wouldn’t be too far from you at all. In fact you’ll probably see more of me!”

It didn’t sound too bad, the picture she was painting. Not bad at all. Except for Kouji, and Izumi, and Aki… he’d be leaving them all behind. Leaving their club behind, and their secret clearing, and everything he’d grown up with.

“I know it would be a pretty massive change for us. But there’s more than one nationally renowned dueling team there, Shouyou.”

Ah. Maybe- maybe the change was worth it.

“Nationally renowned?” he repeated, tasting the words in his mouth more than asking for a confirmation. Nationally renowned. What would that mean? Their own field? Coaches, full quorums? Managers? Victory?

He could taste it. He _wanted_ it.

“I’m going in for an interview next Earthday. If I get it-”

“You’ll get it,” he informed her with a grin. She flicked at his forehead playfully, then kissed the aching spot.

“ _If_ I get it,” she emphasized with a chuckle, “I’ll have to start in the middle of the year. Second semester. I hate to uproot both of you mid-year, but this place- oh, I forgot to mention the best part. A bunch of the dueling teams are ladders, I heard. Straight to university and even into the pros. I thought- I think this can be really good for us, Shou. You and Natsu will be getting a world-class education for free, and my insurance will pay for your medication, and. And gods, I’ll never yell and you for running around recklessly again,” she laughed.

“I think… I think it sounds like a good move,” he agreed slowly, a little blown away. All this from one chance meeting?

And it _was_ perfect, like all their biggest problems had suddenly been solved. Incredible. Unbelievable, even, and a fruity contentedness was finally starting to overpower whatever that nurse had scented into the air.

“And I know I shouldn’t get my hopes since I might not get the jo– don’t say a word, baby, or I’ll flick you again – the job, but I can’t help it. I want it for you two _so bad_.”

There was something in her eyes, something more intense than longing, and it scared him a little. The hint of guilt scared him too.

“Mom, there’s nothing wrong with Nakamura,” he pointed out. Besides it being kind of run-down and boring, but that wasn’t the point. It was enough.

“Yes, but it’s not going to take you where you want to go, either,” she said. “Aoyama can. You can make connections there, form a team with other amazing players, all the things you can’t do back at home. And you know I’d die for Kouji and Yukitaka, but dueling isn’t their passion like it is yours. They’re not going to want to go all the way with you, and then who will you have? Dueling is a team sport, baby. You can’t do it alone.”

“I’ll figure out it no matter what. You know I will,” he assured, holding his mother close as her eyes began to water for the millionth time.

And maybe if he said it enough to himself, he’d start to believe it.

On paper this move could be the answer to everything. Except it was the answer in a world where he could duel whenever he wanted. In _this_ reality, this stupid, stupid reality, he’d been born too late.

And now because of one stupid repeal that didn’t apply to him after all, and one stupid law that still did, it might not matter if Aoyama had a hundred teams that practiced on the Heaven Stage itself.

His heart sank the more he thought about it, right out of his body and through the floor, probably, down to the deepest pits of the earth. Because he still needed a Playmate who would let him duel.

And if he was moving to a new school just a few weeks before the annual deadline, he had no idea how he was going to find one.

 

***

 

“Oh,” Shouyou exclaimed, bouncing in his seat on the visitor side of the wooden desk, “we also learned that plants just used to mostly be green! Did you know that?”

“I did know that, believe it or not.”

Dr. Arita’s voice was a bit scratchier than he remembered from over the summer, and a bit more dry too, but a lot of little things were different now.

She didn’t seem quite as tall, for one, although she was definitely exactly the same amount of intense – _gods_ , those alpha eyes.

(He’d timed himself when he first arrived and found out he couldn’t hold her gaze for more than ten seconds.

And then he’d patted himself on the back for his self-preservation skills, because those eyes were _terrifying_.)

Arita’s clothes had changed too, obviously, and seeing her in formalwear definitely added an extra layer of seriousness to her appearance that Shouyou felt she really hadn’t needed.

The whole school was kind of like that, though. Taking itself way too seriously. Even with snow everywhere he could tell that the grounds were perfectly taken care of, not a twig out of place, and the administrators had gotten him and his family all settled in with an efficiency that bordered on scary. And the obnoxious blonde who’d showed him around definitely didn’t even know how to smile, Shouyou was pretty sure.

His mom and Natsu hadn’t seemed to notice, fawning ( _sparkling_ ) over every last bit of the schools and the little neighboring village so brightly that he thought he might go blind.

He’d hated it.

Mostly because he’d hated the school itself at first, almost as much as he’d hated that hospital. But where the hospital was too white and shiny and clean, the school was all dark and looming and _scary_. Like it was some lair that couldn’t let sunlight in so that the monsters inside didn’t burn up. Nakamura didn’t have any buildings like that, all giant, rough grey stones and probably haunted.

But his mother had landed a critical hit by beaming brightly at him, saying she was “So excited for you, Shou baby,” and he knew he didn’t have a choice. She’d pushed his limp, goosebump-covered body all the way through those ugly wooden doors.

Except now he was really regretting not fighting back, because here he sat in Arita’s giant office three weeks later, buying time as best he could before signing his life away.

“Ooh, and people didn’t even have dynamics before the Cataclysm, just two sexes! Can you believe it?”

“…Yes, I can,” said Arita, turning to her left to look at her wall of degrees again. She’d done that a couple times now, like she wasn’t sure if they were still there, and Shouyou didn’t have a single idea why. They were actual, real paper inside frames hanging on the wall instead of digital projections – it wasn’t like they were going anywhere.

“And did you know humans used to die around eighty years old? That’s, like, sixty years of dueling they’re missing out on!”

“Sixt-” she cut herself off with a shake of the head, leaning in and crossing her fingers together. _Finally_ he’d managed to hook her, and it took everything Shouyou had not to grin. “Hinata, absolutely no part of that math makes sense.”

“Sure it does! One-hundred and forty minus eighty is sixty!”

“Yes, but no one plays sports professionally until they die. Bodies break down towards the end of life. Typically pro duelists retire around eighty, which at most gives them an additional forty or so years of performing as an athlete compared to Pre-C age progression. _Surely_ you know this.”

That last part sounded a little desperate, and it reminded him so much of his teachers at Nakamura that he actually started to feel a little bad. He wasn’t trying to distress anyone, here.

Distract, not distress.

“…Well when you put it that way it makes a lot of sense,” he said after a moment, causing the doctor to hang her head. In relief or even more distress, he couldn’t tell.

“So he learns after all,” the alpha mumbled under her breath, but also not very quietly, and he had a sneaking suspicious he was supposed to hear.

“Oh, but did you k-”

“ _Hinata_.”

He sat a little straighter in the chair when she sighed so heavily that it didn’t seem possible she could have any air left, yet somehow she shook her head and continued. “Look, Hinata, I applaud you for actually getting the better of me with that last one there, but you can’t keep trying to delay the inevitable.”

Shouyou disagreed. He’d been doing just fine so far.

“It’s nearing the end of January,” she continued, “and you need to choose. You can’t put it off anymore. The government simply won’t let you.”

Of course not, because apparently he’d been born two years too early into this stupid, stupid world.

Shouyou clenched his jaw and his fists as his glare bored a hole into his trembling lap.

“Why- why do I need a Playmate? Why can’t my mom just vouch for me or something? Why does _someone outside of my family get to control my life?_ ”

Dr. Arita leaned back in her padded chair and stared him down with those chilly eyes, unaffected.

“The laws aren’t made to be oppressive,” she said, not unkindly. “For the most part they’re for safety. Tell me, what have you learned of our society from five hundred years ago?”

Shouyou’s indignant glare turned curious. “Five hundred years ago? Like, right after the Cataclysm?”

“Correct, right after dynamics came to be.”

Thinking hard, Shouyou scratched absently at his chin.

“I mean, I know the survivors from Amerika and Nihon made it to Atarasei and kind of mixed together and formed tribes, and stuff, but… I thought the whole point of the Second Dark Ages is we don’t really know what happened?”

“Only a partial truth,” the doctor replied in that blank, mysterious way of hers. Shouyou caught himself leaning in. “Much from that time was lost to the chaos of humanity simply trying to rebuild itself and survive. But we do have enough records, you see, to know what happens when civilization does not exist to rein dynamics in.”

“Then why didn’t we learn about that in school?” he wondered out loud. Yeah, the conspiracy videos had been awesome, but everyone knew they weren’t real. They’d never been told about actual records from that time, not once.

“Because you are still very young, and the government likes to shield the young from harsh realities. Now, I’m not saying they’re entirely wrong, but I do think it’s important that you understand why you’re being forced into this system.”

_Yes_. Shouyou absolutely, one-hundred-percent agreed. Dr. Arita wasn’t terrifying at all, he decided in that moment. _She was on his side_.

He met her gaze head-on, hoping his own was full of the resolve he felt ballooning inside.

“I want to know.”

She inclined her head, a gesture that said _So_ _let’s begin_.

“Fine. To put it plainly, Playmates, suppressants, dynamics facilities, the whole system – it’s all a matter of life or death for omegas.”

…Hah?

“Life or… d-death?” Shouyou yelped. He tugged at the hem of his sleeves when a chill ran all the way from his spines to every end of every limb.

Dr. Arita nodded. “You’ve grown up in a world on suppressants, so it might be difficult for you to understand. But later in your education you will learn that the body of a still-growing omega without suppressants is incredibly volatile. It can’t self-regulate long-term and relies on an enzyme known as virase to survive.”

He found his arms wrapped around his midsection, and when had those gotten there? Leaning in just a little bit more, Shouyou forced out a hesitant “What does it do?”

He’d never heard of virase – although that didn’t necessarily mean he hadn’t been taught about it, to be fair, because science was almost as boring as history – so it couldn’t have been that important. Maybe. Probably?

“It regulates hormone production, several key body functions, and reproductive cycles.”

Oh. Well that all sounded pretty important.

“Its lethality is with regards to heat cycles, primarily. Without it they run unchecked. Each month would produce a cycle more and more intense until they were all primal state. And the body simple cannot handle that for more than a few years before it causes irreparable cognitive and nerve damage.”

Yeah, Shouyou was regretting not paying attention to science right about now.

The doctor ran a hand through her long brown hair and continued before he could even open his mouth.

“Unfortunately, virase is only produced in alphas and betas. In order to attract a mate and ensure survival, omegas produce one of the most potent and potentially lethal substances known to man.”

“ _Eh?_ Lethal?” Shouyou blurted out, reeling at the twist. First he was in danger, and now he was gonna murder other people?

Nothing about him felt particularly deadly, but he inched backwards a little just in case. He definitely didn’t want Dr. Arita to die, or _anyone_ , and oh gods, what if he’d, like, infected people already or something, and-

The doctor held up her hand in a “stop right there” motion.

“I’m still talking about omegas not on suppressants, Hinata. I’m not sure what’s going through that head of yours but I already have one perpetually stressed assistant out in the lobby. Please refrain from too much panic.”

Oh. He slumped back into his seat, willing his overexcited heart to calm down. It definitely wasn’t listening, the stupid traitorous thing.

“Moving on,” she cleared her throat, “this substance is a combination of hormones and pheromones able to be transmitted via air or direct body contact. We call it a pull.”

Well _that_ hadn’t been what Shouyou was expecting.

He had to stifle a snort, actually, because he knew all about pulls. They were part of a person’s heat scent, the part that made them smell extra attractive to everyone else. He didn’t know much about it worked, because again, science, but he _did_ know it wasn’t dangerous.

(Not to mention it made sex pretty fun, he might’ve heard from some older classmates with older siblings. Honestly he’d kind of been looking forward to getting to use it himself.)

“Not the pull that you know of,” the doctor quickly added, like she’d read his face. Which she probably had. “The chemicals produced by a matured omega are much like those of a younger omega on suppressants. Relatively weak. The pull of a younger omega off suppressants is an entirely different beast. Strong enough to lead to altered states of mind and complete loss of will. In other words, it can cause reversion to-”

“-your primal state,” Shouyou finished for her in a whisper, eyes so wide it felt like her words were prying them open.

A flash of something that looked a little like pride glinted in gray eyes before it quickly disappeared.

“Indeed. But not just for you and your mate – everyone within a certain distance can be affected, thrust into a primal state focused exclusively on mating the bearer of the pull. With the proper safeguards in place it shouldn’t have been a problem. Except people didn’t have that kind of structure right after the Cataclysm. They were struggling to survive as a species at that point. Furthermore, as you already said…”

“They were new to dynamics,” murmured Shouyou distractedly, a new image of the world starting to take shape in his mind. One he didn’t like, not at all, of people confused and lost and trying to figure out a world that would probably feel a lot like it was always on fire. Chaotic and unpredictable and _painful_.

Arita nodded in the corner of his eye. “Correct again. And humanity absolutely wasn’t prepared. People turned to their instincts for guidance, stuck in a hierarchical system that relied on secondary genders and animalistic natures instead of overcoming them. And when pulls started making themselves widely known, those at the top of the hierarchy used them as an excuse to do unspeakable things and label it as nature taking its course. I’m sure I don’t have to spell the situation out for you.”

No, no she didn’t. An involuntary gulp worked its way down Shouyou’s throat, lodging itself deep and constricting his airway. He breathed a little hard to make up for it, but the room suddenly felt much too hot, the air much too thick.

Gods, why couldn’t he _breathe_?

The alpha in front of him didn’t seem to notice, soldiering on. “And then we fixed the problem. Explorers found the old world and brought back enough to spur the Tech Rev and Re-Modernization. Ultimately, science and society were reborn and people were able to create suppressants to hormonally stabilize young adults and mask omegas’ pulls.”

_Well thank the gods for explorers_ , Shouyou thought. He sent a little prayer to their dead spirits, apologizing for ever despising them all these years, even the evil history ones.

Air filtered back into the room, finally, thin and breathable again and he sucked it in greedily.

Something still didn’t make sense though, so he gathered enough oxygen to frown and force out an “Ok, but that doesn’t explain why I need a Playmate if suppressants solved everything.”

 “They didn’t, though,” Arita replied with a wave of her hand. “Not all of it. Suppressants stabilize hormone production and mask the pull, but they can’t compensate for the lack of virase. At most they buy you a few years. Now perhaps a person’s body will give out at seventeen instead of fourteen or fifteen.”

“Give out,” Shouyou repeated dumbly, slumping (falling) backwards on the chair when his spine realized it, too, was giving out. His eyes weren’t really working either, unable to see anything in the room except a blur of colors and fear.

The bold statement echoed around in Shouyou’s mind until he couldn’t do anything but hear it, but see it in big colorful letters across his eyes.

If Shouyou refused a Playmate, he only had two more years to live.

_If Shouyou refused a Playmate, he only had two more years to live._

He blinked rapidly, icy gray coming into focus. “So that’s why…”

“Why we need Playmates, yes,” she filled in for him, and he was glad. Talking was getting difficult now that the lump in his throat was back. “With minors involved in a dangerous situation, naturally the government needs to monitor the entire process. Thus all the rules, contracts, facilities, and so on. That’s why we built the current system.”

Sure. The current system in favor of everyone but him, it felt like.

“So- so why not just gather a bunch of whatever it is we need to live and inject it or something? Why have Playmates?”

The doctor raised one of her thin dark brows. “And have alpha or beta donors’ bodies try to sync their cycles with dozens or hundreds of omega recipients? See them pulled into primal state after primal state, trying to match more than one partner?”

Ok, yeah, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Shouyou puffed out his cheeks, leaning back into his chair.

“The primary benefit of the Playmate system is organization and oversight, but there’s also a social component. It gives omegas and their Playmates the chance to practice having a steady, mature relationship, or at the very least someone to consistently rely on if you don’t want to date.”

Shouyou squinted. “Like a partnership?”

“Exactly. Like a partnership, friendly or romantic.”

It all made sense, in a horrific, terrible kind of way.

(Gods, admitting that hurt. But he wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t suicidal. He didn’t want to _die_.

But he also wanted to duel.)

“F-Fine,” the redhead muttered, as if he was agreeing to his own execution.

(Was he, though? Because if he couldn’t find a Playmate to let him duel, then what kind of existence would he be living?

Would he even be _able_ to live without magic? Shouyou desperately never wanted to find out.)

The omega grit his teeth, helplessness turning to anger and anger turning into words. “I’ll find a Playmate if I have to. But it’s still not fair that they get to control my club activities! Why was that ever even a law? I just- I just want to duel.”

Dr. Arita grinned then, something ferocious and a little bit feral that prickled against Shouyou’s skin and told him to _freeze_. The rational part of his brain knew she wouldn’t hurt him, knew she was a school employee and a civilized human being and safe, but his body hadn’t caught up yet, eyes busy darting all across her figure for any minute muscle movements. Any sign that she would attack.

(In the back of his mind, Shouyou was back in elementary school, back in Post-C History and their (blessedly short) unit on supposed early tribal structure.

“While omegas cared for children and the home, betas were workers and male alphas were rulers,” his teacher had explained.

Aki had immediately raised his hand. “What about female alphas? What were they?”

“Warriors. Hunters.” She’d shivered.

_“Predators._ ”)

“That, Hinata, is the part of this that’s complete and utter _bullshit_ ,” the alpha said, light hitting her incisors all wrong. Or maybe Shouyou was just imagining it, as his eyes locked on to their faintly sharpened tips. “It’s pathetic to continue a bigoted tradition formed when the government was comprised of bigoted fools. There’s absolutely no scientific basis to support the idea that young betas and alphas have any better decision-making skills than their omega counterparts, particularly not while on suppressants. But there’s no accounting for stupidity, is there?”

She completed her impassioned rant and met his eyes again before freezing herself, seeming to read the air that had turned ten degrees cooler. Immediately she leaned back and slumped in her chair, relaxing the tension out of her muscles and giving him space.

“Forgive me. Should I call in the secretary? She’s certified in aromatic intervention.”

The pretty beta who had met him outside had seemed like the comforting type, immediately calling him by his first name and giving him a hug, so he didn’t doubt she’d have some pretty strong scent abilities. He shook his head no, though – his frame had started to unlock, and he was pretty sure his heart had figured out he wasn’t running a marathon. Or it would soon, hopefully.

“I see. Well, I apologize. Don’t hesitate to tell me if I’m making you uncomfortable.”

She was, but mostly because of what she was forced to force him to do, not because of anything to do with her.

Shouyou nodded but kept his mouth shut, pointedly staring at the corner of her desk. A piece of wood was chipped away there, making a little hole on an otherwise perfect surface.

The doctor’s loud sigh made him glance up.

“It’s only until the January after you turn twenty-one,” she reminded him, and Shouyou couldn’t contain a snort.

“Yeah, only for the next six years.”

The woman pursed her lips but didn’t retort. Instead, she pushed a stack of folders his way. “As the one forced into this mess, you get to request a beta or alpha, not the other way around. There are rules you and your Playmate have to follow as well. Your partner will control your club activities, not your life. Being physically intimate isn’t even required the first year; only marking is. You won’t become something for someone else to use, Hinata. You’re not property because of your dynamic. Not now and not ever.”

“Sure doesn’t feel like that,” he muttered, turning back to the chipped hole. Idly he wondered how it got there.

“If it’s any consolation,” she continued, softer, “a Playmateship only lasts for one year, about the length of time it takes a mating bite to fully heal. Every January you’re allowed to change Playmates if you want, and allowances are made for emergency separations in case you get a particularly… _incompatible_ partner.”

The ferocity that undercut her pleasant tone made him turn to her again, seeing something in her stare that he couldn’t name. Solidarity, maybe?

But so what? She couldn’t stop this, couldn’t help him, not really. The one thing that mattered most to him was gonna be controlled by some stranger’s whim.

“So- so what?” he voiced, slow at first and then strong. “I don’t think the government’s gonna call someone who won’t let me duel as ‘incompatible.’ They’d probably be happy! And then I’m stuck like that for a whole year, and maybe the next year too, and- and no offense, but you have _no idea_ what that’s like!”

The silence in the room grew thick and uncomfortable, filling his throat like syrup and sticking whatever he wanted to say next inside. So he stayed silent.

Dr. Arita stared him down, unwavering.

After a moment she took a slow, heavy breath. “…You’re right. However, I’ll let you in on a secret. I too had a Playmate when I was your age. You remind me a lot of him, actually.”

Which was cool or whatever, but just seriously not the same situation as his. She was an _alpha_. If she’d chosen to have a Playmate in high school, it was still her _choice_. She would’ve been the one to tell her Playmate what clubs to do, and been free to do whatever activities _she_ wanted in the meantime. She wouldn’t have had to worry about a freaking thing.

He opened his mouth to tell her so, but she beat him to the punch.

“We found each other in our first year of high school and never separated. That Playmate, that male omega, eventually became my Courtmate. And five years ago, when the government finally got their heads out of their asses and abolished Order A-509, he became my True Mate. So perhaps I’m a little more acquainted with societal injustice than you know.”

Shouyou stared up at her, shocked. Dr. Arita had a _mate_? An omega mate? But she was a female alpha, and those… oh. _Oh_.

He was a giant idiot.

_She was a female alpha_.

“I-I didn’t realize…” he began slowly, cursing his big, unfiltered mouth. Gods. Shouyou scrunched up his nose. Sometimes laws and people and everything really just _sucked_.

Luckily the doctor didn’t seem upset, relaxing him with a soft grin. “No, most people don’t, do they?” she replied, and Shouyou stared at the floor in shame. “It will always be hard for those who cannot possibly experience certain hardships to empathize with the ones who do.”

“…Sor-”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Hinata,” she cut him off. “Absolutely none of this is your fault. And besides, both of our fights have already been won, haven’t they? I know that’s not comforting to you who won’t get to reap the benefits, but at least we can rest easy knowing our children, should we have any, will never face the same, no?”

Well, Shouyou wasn’t so sure about children – he was still practically a kid himself, kind of, and really didn’t have any plans for the future besides a vivid image of standing on top of the world as the greatest duelist alive. But then he thought of Natsu, of her happy, loud smile, and he realized that he could sort of relate. Natsu didn’t have to worry, now, not like he did.

Natsu could be free.

“I guess,” he finally responded.

But still, _he_ -

No. No, he realized suddenly, all at once.

This wasn’t over yet – he couldn’t start thinking like he’d lost. He still had one more option, his last hope. It would have to be enough; just because he’d never found anyone at Nakamura who would’ve let him duel didn’t mean he couldn’t do it here. There was no way he could risk it going random – he’d have to find a Playmate he _knew_ would help him out.

Yes. There was no other choice, not when a year without dueling would feel like an empty lifetime. And six? Well, he might as well go mateless at that point since it would basically feel like a death sentence anyway.

Shouyou glanced up to meet Dr. Arita’s eyes, involuntarily gulping at what he saw. There was something knowing, there, something a little bit protective too. It made him feel like maybe he had even more of an ally in her than he’d realized.

She patted the stack of folders and held his gaze head-on.

“I’ve already put the best candidates on top.”

*

Shouyou didn’t have to go any further than the first folder. As soon as he opened it up he saw a familiar stern face staring back at him, deep blue eyes and deep scary frown and all.

And he _knew_.

 

***


End file.
